Theifs and Traitors
by Lord Hallowell
Summary: Percy is a slightly smarter and certainly more powerful hero and will stop at nothing to find out who murdered the campers and clear his fathers name. Am considering re-writing it. If it belongs in crossovers tell me. Was accidentaly deleted.
1. Chapter 1

**First off I would like to say that no copy write infringement is intended if I have done so please let me know and I will remove or amend the offending piece of fiction so that credit is given to were it is due. **

** The plot and characters will remain fairly similar to the book itself but don't write me off yet this is the first one I have written and I could use some help and ideas so…**

** In this story Percy is like the smart kid that gets picked on because he is a big thinker, and he's the hot guy that has a worse home life then the poorest of men. Here Percy is an inventor or at least he wants to be he takes what he sees and finds a way to make it work. But when weird things start to happen he finds that reality is a bit stranger then his imagination could ever be. This story is a figment of my imagination and the characters belong to Rick Riordan. If you read some thing in here and think it is yours please let me know so I can give you credit because I can not recognize someone if they don't tell me. Another thing later in the story ideas from other stories or genres may show up if you feel that this violates the area that it is in let me know so I can put it in the crossover section okay. Okay good now on with the show.**

**Also he hasn't been claimed yet in this timeline.**

**The hand idea and a few plot twists came from Star Wars but it will be different so bare with me. Percy Jackson and the Olympians © Rick Riordan. Star Wars © George Lucas. Lord if the Rings is © of the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien. I also used some other sites to get information I wanted so I should thank Wikipedia even if it is updated by anybody.**

**In this story some of the swords are lightsabers others are not so there we go why you say. Because the blade in the lightsabers is like celestial bronze turned to light and so it still reacts and is stopped by solid blades. Now the sabers can be made to be so hot that they melt through solids and cauterize stumps and other injuries.**

The Lightening Thief

"Percy what're you doing?"

"I am drawing Grover." I said with a cool voice.

"Oh, is it that hand you were working on in the forges?"

"Yes Grover, I am altering the design to make room for some more focusing crystals."

"Oh, well it's almost time for breakfast so I'll see you there, ok?"

"Yeah, sure Grover breakfast got it." Grover left but not before shooting me a look of pity not that I need it.

First let me introduce myself. I am Perseus Octavius Jackson you can call me Octavius I only let friends call me Percy. A little bit about me? Well I sound like Christopher Lee and for a fifteen year old I could pass for a seventeen year old. I'm six one and have rippling back muscles and all in all the body of an Olympic gymnast after all I have been in gymnastics since I was three. I could grow a beard by the time I was thirteen and yet I still have not one hair on my chest. My eyes are emerald green and I wear glasses that are of a really old style. They look like the top half of the lens has five sides and on the left and right side of the lenses it turns into a half moon. My hair is long straight as a board and black. I usually wear it in a tail. And I dress like I'm from the eighteen hundreds. I have ADHD and dyslexia but have a one hundred a fifty IQ so I guess you could call me smart. Oh and I am a Demigod.

I have been at camp since the end of April when I was expelled and me and Mom when on that trip to Montauk. The whole Grover conversation that has been happening everyday since I was put in cabin eleven, the first week at camp had been interesting they'd shuffled me from activity to activity trying to figure out whose kid I was. First they thought I was Hephaestus but that was a farce, then they thought maybe I was a son of Apollo because I could hold my hands over some one and heal their injury. And then they gave up after I beat everyone in water sports. Now mind you I am not perfect. I can't shoot an arrow to save my life and I couldn't even out run a tree. But the self defense with swords and stuff wasn't too bad I just can't find a sword that feels right so I'm not good at that either. But I can draw and make things like right now I am making a right and left arm like Anakin Skywalker's off of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. You would think that what with Hephaestus as the God of Forges you would find prosthesis's here to work with but no. By the way I want to be an inventor. And at camp it's possible.

A few minutes later I got up and headed to breakfast with the other twenty-five kids in Hermes cabin and ate. Afterwards I had sword practice with Luke and so I walked down to the Arena where Luke was putting his armor on. I went and found some armor that I liked; it was a perfect fit and both the metal and the leather was the color of mother-of-pearls. There was the hauberk a long chain mail shirt that reached the middle of my calves it was a little long but it flared out for more leg room, greaves and bracers with moveable joints, and a molded leather and bronze chest and back piece with shoulder shields that fit itself to my body. I found a sword that didn't feel too clumsy and walked out. Luke stared at me and I said coldly "What?" its not that I'm mean its just that after having a step-father that made you work as a gigolo and losing the only person that cared about me I was a little disdainful.

"It's nothing except that nobody but those blessed by Poseidon can wear that armor it used to be a game to see how much of it we could get on before it started to come off by itself."

"Oh, well should I take it off?"

"No keep it I doubt anyone but you could wear it anyway although the guys in Aphrodite Cabin a libel to pitch a fit because your armor looks better than theirs."

"Ummm."

Luke primed and readied his self and then he attacked. He came at me like a whirl wind and with a _clang_ I met his sword he thrust and I parried. I started to counter attack and incorporated my gymnast moves to gain a little more range. I was disarmed repeatedly and then we would slide through the forms in slow motion so that I could memorize them. Then we would start again. On the last one on one match I launched the attack and started to press my advantage. He may have had more experience but I could move faster. So I switched to my other hand and kept going.

It went on for nearly an hour but in the end exhaustion claimed me; I succumbed to defeat. After I had caught my breath I went over to where Luke and the others were relaxing and after having talked for a little bit Luke decided to show us a disarming move using me to do it. So I poured water over my head and was instantly invigorated, and so I stepped out there.

He showed us in slow motion and then tried it in real time, I lost my blade. So we went over it again and then we started to fight. I parried, thrust, blocked, and lunged and then my strength just left me, I was beat and I knew it so I figure I would try the move. I moved my blade against his guard and twisted and it skittered across the stone floor. With a wave of his hand Luke had his sword and so we did it again it was instant he won and someone said "Fluke?"

Luke said "I don't know, I wonder what he could do with a balanced sword."

We went to lunch and I went in the forges to work on the hands and two hours, five designs, twelve finger joints, and about thirty alloy combos later I put them away for safe keeping because they were done I would just tinker with them until I was happy with them. I had made them so that the fingertip pieces and the plate that made up the palm had hundred's of microscopic detectors that determined hot, cold, wet, dry, soft, and rough. Pretty much everything that a normal nerve could except that these were about twice as sensitive than a regular arm and ten times stronger that a humans' arm and they were made of celestial bronze, titanium alloy, and black enamel plating.

That evening we were to play capture the flag the second game since I came here. I thought it was great. The hell hound and Clarisse not so much but everything else was cool. We got ready to play Hermes had allied itself with Apollo, Hephaestus, and Dionysus, and Aphrodite. Everyone else was with Athena. But I was confidant. Last time I played I had shot lightening from my hands and incased another kid in a layer of ice.

I was to lead guard against an attack for the creek, and after we claimed it I was to let no one but our own cross. So I got my armor and dressing I found a matching helmet that made me look like I had an octopus on my head because the helmet itself looked like the octopus mantle but the face guard for the cheeks had long metallic tentacles that slithered down from the mantle and attached to my face. I put it on and readied my self for battle. We marched until we reached the creek and then Luke and his guard ran across and with a grunt I raised the water of the creek into a wall chanting my voice echoing through the air "Waters of the Appalachian Mountains, listen to the great word, flow waters of the river, against the Half-Bloods!" We could hear fighting and occasionally I felt someone try to cross the creek and get thrown back but then something slammed into the back of my head and the wall of water wavered I turned and there was Annabeth and if looks could kill she would have been dead but anyhow. She put on her cap of invisibility and I started to let loose and aura of cold to surround the area. Then after I heard her teeth chatter I started to attack. We fought and when I had just about beat her she waved her hand and sent me flying into the creek which had by now started to collapse. I wrapped the water around my waist and with the water swirling around my waist like a water spout rose into the air and just as she jumped I threw a ball of water at her and sent her flying into a tree. She pulled out a whistle and blew a clear note. Out of nowhere two other Athena kids started attacking I formed the water into a ring with flagella like arms to act as a whip so that I could concentrate on one opponent. First I took out one of the new attackers I think his name was Carson, and then I took out the other her name was Maria.

Only me and Annabeth were left she created fireballs in her hands and threw them I extinguished them with a wave of water and then we started to _fight_. We used a whole arsenal of powers, sword moves and other maneuvers and All the while I was still trying to maintain a wall made out of exactly fifteen thousand gallons of water. Let me tell you, I was tired. Finally my team came with the flag but before they could cross they were apprehended. With a shout the Apollo kid threw me the flag I then threw it to Selena Beauregard who was on my side of the creek. With a slight swish the flag changed from grey with a barn owl to light pink with a heart and crown the symbol of true love, in other words, Aphrodite's symbol with the game over Annabeth left in a snit and Luke was slapping me on the back when Selena Beauregard tackled me and before I could blink kissed me full on the mouth. One look at Beckendorf the Hephaestus councilor and you could tell he was about to rip my head of with his bare hands. He could probably do it to. After about two minutes of kissing her she got up and said "That was for our win thanks Percy."

"Uh, your welcome?" I said. I didn't have a lot of experience with girls on a romantic level; Sex? Yeah. Lust? Yeah. Platonic and other forms of love? No. I got up and after I had cleaned myself off a little I headed back to the pavilion for the after party.

I had just taken a swig on my new favorite drink blue Barq's Old Style Root Beer when Annabeth came over to get a glass. She sneered at me, I smirked back. She scowled and after getting her glass she purposely walked into me and caused me to spill my drink all over myself. She laughed and started to walk away until I caused her glass to spew water all over her. She whirled around and said "What did you do that for!" I had just noticed that Luke had been looking at her when this had happen and he had started laughing.

"Oh, I am so sorry Ms. Chase;" I said sarcastically with a sneer "I wasn't thinking. Sorry for embarrassing you in front of your boyfriend."

"Luke is not my boyfriend!"

"I didn't say anything about Luke."

"I hate you!" she hissed. Glaring at me for all she was worth I could tell she was trying not to cry.

"The feeling is mutual. But this is what I don't get, I now why I hate you. You're a spoilt little brat that throws temper tantrums when you lose and are a hypocrite but why do you hate me?" I was truly curious because I wanted to know so I could exploit it. Her answer surprised me though.

"Spoilt is that what you think. You don't know me well enough for that. Why I hate you? Well let's see, you look at everybody as if they are going to stab you in the back the first chance they get, you get upset when we ask you what you're doing, AND you act like we are all beneath you! Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe people just want to be you friend!"

"Have you ever thought that maybe I don't want friends?" I said. The whole camp was watching now and Dionysus and Chiron were looking at each other and the storm that had been brewing over our heads for the past month nervously.

"Oh, please. Everybody wants friends, even Clarisse though she won't admit it!"

"Not everyone is like you Annabeth!" I said with a sigh.

I turned to walk away but she didn't seem through because before I could take two steps a platter smacked me in the face. She called out "Where are you going coward!" I heard the crowd give a collective gasp because even Clarisse didn't blatantly call someone a coward unless she had proof. I turned. Now my mother has Scottish ancestry and every other summer we would go to visit my maternal grandparents and while we are there we could only speak Gaelic so I have a slight brogue when I get angry and my voice echoes more like when Christopher Lee had that scene on top of Orthanc in The Lord of the Rings. So when I turned and said "Do not test me!" I was sorely reminded of that scene with Davy Jones in PotC: AWE.

"Or what?"

Without another word I shot lightening from my hands but she started to shoot lightening as well and then I just let go of mine and hers hit. It hurt it was like a thousand burning knives stabbing everywhere and I mean _everywhere_ so I dropped to my knees and cocooned myself in water and then After gaining enough insulation from her I let loose with flying icicles but before she could be shish kabob-ed they melted and Chiron yelled "That's Enough!" Annabeth and I glared at each other and as she got ready to leave I said "Wait Annabeth."

"What?" she spat.

I looked at her and said "Look into my eyes. Tell me what you see." She looked ready to run me through but a look from Chiron and she sighed.

"Sure, whatever;" She looked and after about a minute she flinched and then looked again and said "It's cold and dark. And it seems empty."

"You want to know why?" I whispered in her ear. "It's because my step father hired me out as a gigolo during the holidays and summers. It's because my first step dad was killed in a car wreck six years ago, it's because I do not trust anyone but my mom because no one has given me a good reason. Grover came close but then he started to keep secrets from and because of my ignorance my mother the only one who _cared_ is _dead!_ I may want your friendship but I don't need it." She turned to leave but stopped and then she stared. I looked up at what she was staring at and above my head was a hologram of a trident.

Chiron stood and said "You are claimed."

I was looking around confusedly and Annabeth put her hand on my arm and said "Listen." So I turned to Chiron and he continued "Poseidon, Stormbringer, Earthshaker, and Father of Horses. Hail Perseus Octavius Halliwell-Jackson, Son of the Sea God!"

That next Monday I was moved to Cabin three but before I could make it my own I had to change its' look like all the other councilors do with their cabins. So putting my hand on the door I concentrated on what I wanted the cabin to look like inside and out. It turned into a giant Florida Auger shell that spiraled upward. It looked kind of like a lighthouse and was wider at the bottom than at the top with columns in front made of coral to support the balcony and a flat roof on top of the lamp room for stargazing. I walked in and it looked like a Victorian Manor inside. In the center there was a great big rug and a spiral staircase that went to the very top. The master suite was where the lamp would have been and it was mine because as camp counselor for Poseidon Cabin it was my privilege. There was a small library and there were around ten rooms each with twin bunks in it. The Library was on the second of five floors and had a small reading nook. The first floor was like a parlor area.

My room was one and a half stories with a loft at the story marker in my room to read and work there was a desk a huge overstuffed leather wing backed chair and a small door that lead to the catwalk around the top. The stair case that went to the loft continued to a hatch on the roof. In my room was a picture of my mom and a few of my favorite books, along with a wardrobe full of clothes that had been provided my father from my favorite time periods, and a huge king sized bed with green silk sheets. But admittedly I was unhappy without my cabin mates. But the upside was that I could go around naked. For the next two weeks I worked with the two hands and forearms I had built making them stronger and lighter and added an arc generator into each forearm to power it.

It was around the beginning May by now and I had been sun tanning nude on top of my cabin roof. But instead of growing darker like I had originally intended I grew paler but my flawlessly smooth skin whiter then milk seemed to attracted a lot of looks so I was pleased with it. and had taken to running around with out a shirt because I felt I was muscular enough to get by with it. For weeks I would train to get stronger and I started to enhance my flexibility by going further into my gymnastics routine.

It was mid May and I had just added a system onto my mechno-hands, each of the finger tip pads and the palm plate that worked like hundreds of little starfish feet allowing a non-slip grip when Grover came to collect me so we could go talk to Chiron. On the way there I stopped him and said "Grover are you mad at me."

He signed and said "No Percy I'm not I just wish that you and Annabeth could get along. I just know that if you did you would become the best of friends."

"I doubt it."

'I don't know Percy maybe if you let go of this grudge you have against her…"

"Grover I don't hate her I lied about that I just wanted her to confront her feelings head on and get them off her chest."

"Oh. Ohhh, that reverse pyscholigy stuff that Chiron was always pulling on us."

"Yup." We had reached the big house. It was a large modern building with no class or character and could have used a different paint color but anyway we got there and Mr. D or Dionysus if you prefer, said "Come closer and don't expect me to do the accepted thing and kowtow to you, mortal, even if barnacle brains is your dad." The thunder rumbled. "Blah, blah, blah." For the past week since my fight with Annabeth the storm had been building the ocean which we could walk to in about thirty minutes had thirty foot waves and the clouds looked like boiling ink. We walked over and with a snap of my fingers two chairs from my cabin appeared and me and Grover sat with Chiron, Mr. D, and an invisible player although I already new who it was. We started to play and Grover because he was nervous started to eat Mr. D's diet coke cans.

We were dealt in and Chiron spoke first saying "How do you like your new cabin Percy?"

"It's cool," I said "but I figure being a child of the big three tends to be over pampered like that so I'll get used to it."

Mr. D said "I say we make the atomic particles of his molecular structure to erupt in flames we sweep up the ash and be done with this nonsense."

I glared while Chiron said "Mr. D you know the Sea King would have your immortal guts for garters. Besides spontaneous combustion is a form of harm." I grimaced at the thought.

"He wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless I have agreed to restrain myself I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead send you to your father as a gag gift." I rolled my eyes.

"Mr. D-" Chiron warned

"Very well," Mr. D said "There is one other choice but I recommend against it unless you're suicidal." He stood and where a fat balding middle aged drunk was before a young surfer dude with slicked back black hair and wearing a tiger strip suit appeared. He reached into his pockets and pulling out a signet ring put it on and with a snap he turned into purple mist and with a smell like fresh raisins he was gone. I turned to Chiron and said "Is this about whatever Zeus and my dad are fighting over?"

"How do you know of this?"

"I've had these dreams and-"

"See," said Grover "this is his quest!"

"Hush Satyr, as you were saying Percy?" said Chiron

"In these dreams I see either them fighting in human form or as their sacred animal and every time I try to stop them a force from underground stops me and drags me down to a chasm. In the last one the force spoke with a cold high pitched voice like wind whistling threw the branches I heard the voice underground and it said _'Come down young hero, come down!'_

The ground splits and I fall and I keep falling until I reach the center of the earth and then in front of a dark chasm the voice said _'Pledge your self to me join me! I have the power to save the one you love! You must choose.'_

Another voice this one light and melodic said _'I pledge myself to your service just help me save her I can't live any longer with out her.'_

The first voice said _'Very well now fulfill the first task I set you and return to me.'_

'_Yes Master'_ For an indeterminable amount of time I waited and then the second voice returned it said _'What have I done!'_

'_You're fulfilling your destiny. Bring down the gods destroy the west and revive the Golden Age! As for you my apprentice I shall give you more powers but make sure the weapons get to me!'_

'_Yes my Lord.'_

The second voice left and the first one said to me _'Help me rise and save your mother,'_ I saw her in the same golden light that covered her that night she died her eyes were empty looking and she kept saying _'help me Percy, please!'_ But all I could do was stand there. Then her eyes widen and she says _'Flee, run Percy run and don't look ba-'. _And then she was gone and the force started pulling me to the edge and I knew that if I fell I would fall forever. I grab a rock and started pulling away. With a howl of rage the thing in the pit let go and I returned to the surface but I had the feeling that it wasn't trying to pull me in. It was using me as leverage to get out.

Chiron had a calculated and worried look on his face like when he was trying to figure out a way to help you get the right answer in Latin with out giving it away entirely. He sat there for a few minutes and then said "So what id you think of the hell hound?"

"It scared me but I'll get used to it. What's the other option?"

"You will meet worse, much, much worse before you're done."

"What is the other option? And what do you mean by worse? Where would I see worse?"

"On your quest of course, that is, if you except."

"Well seeing as you haven't told me what it is yet…" About that time a scream rang through the valley. Chiron jumped up sending the pinochle table flying while the invisible person, Grover, and I tried to run out the door to see what was going on. We should have stayed put.

What we found was disgusting and disturbing, the youngest boy and the youngest girl from every cabin had been tied to a stake around the camp fire and stabbed; repeatedly. Grover lost it and threw up and with a heart wrenching scream Annabeth (the invisible person) took off and gathered her brother and sister in her arms. While others mourned I felt a cold fury. Someone a traitor was attacking us where we were to be safe.

After closing the eyes of Annabeth's siblings I stood and said "We were attacked where we should be safe. Our haven is in a storm and we must defend it. On behalf of my cabin I express my condolences and I as you brother in arms shall be happy to take care of preparations, if the other councilors would join me please."

After everyone of the councilors Luke for Hermes, Beckendorf for Hephaestus, Selena for Aphrodite, Clarisse for Ares, a boy named Markus for Apollo, Leon for Dionysus, Linux for Demeter, and Annabeth for Athena. After they had gathered I said "I know none of you well accept my charity but I would like to provide the materials for their shrouds and if there is anything else please let me know." With a nod they all left except Annabeth. I waited for her to speak and final she said "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you being so nice? Why do you care? Especially with mine and Clarisse's cabins."

"Because Annabeth I know what it is to feel pain, and loss. I just want to help."

"But why?" she said tearfully.

While I was thinking _'Don't cry, don't cry, please don't cry! Holy Hera please don't let her cry!'_ I said "Because that is what a friend does Annabeth. No, no please don't cry!"

Hera didn't answer my prayer because she threw herself at me and started crying and babbling about how she was so mean; and she should have been more understanding; and blah, blah, blah. I snapped my fingers and my chair appeared. I sat down and shifted Annabeth in my arms so that she would be more comfortable. For the next hour I held her until she finally fell asleep from exhaustion. I tried to take her to Athena's cabin but I couldn't get passed the door so I took her into mine and laid her down on the suede chaise lounge in the library. I walked out to let Chiron know that she was safe and that she was in my cabin. For the rest of the day I prepared the letters of the parents of the kids that died, and then I after all that I got the two hands I had been working on and setting at the table in the library I tinkered until Annabeth woke up.

When she stirred I set down the hands and walked over to her. She looked at me for a minute and then smiled. She had a really beautiful smile and I smiled back. She looked around and said "Where am I?"

"You're in my cabin. You fell asleep and I couldn't go into your cabin so I brought you to my library."

She looked around again and seeing the hands walked over and after looking at me picked one up. She looked at them critically and then she said "These are good, strong;" she tried to bend it "well built," she hit the table with it "but the real question is, do the work?"

"Won't know until someone loses an arm."

She set it down and looking at me said "We really shouldn't be talking."

"Why?"

"Our parents are feuding have been for the past three thousand years."

"Oh right, the whole Medusa thing. Annabeth we can't let our parents dictate our actions because if we do then we give up the one thing we have left."

"Oh and what's that?"

"Our free will," she looked at me like I had lost my mind I said quickly "we have the right to deny them. It may not be wise but we still have that right. And we don't have to be best friends just close friends, confidants."

"Sure why not." She shook my hand and made it official. It was midnight so we just stayed up talking until she got tired again at about three so we went to bed. I put her up in one of the nicer rooms taking one of the bunks out of it and taking her hand had her concentrate on what she wanted the room to look like. I left so she could get ready for bed and went and crawled into mine. About two days passed during which the shrouds were prepared and Annabeth and I took turns comforting one another. I went to bed that night in my spandex shorts when I heard a nock on the door front door. I got up and there was Annabeth in a midriff shirt and what looked like a pair of boy shorts. I swallowed and abs, eh, asked "What?"

"I keep seeing their faces." I noticed that she was staring at my crotch I wasn't forced to be a gigolo for nothing. And so I invited her in and crawled in the bed scooting over and making room for her. She slid in and buried her face in my chest. I held her for a while until I fell asleep.

I woke the next morning with a face full of blond hair and a heavy weight on my chest. I shifted a bit before realizing that some how during the night Annabeth had moved to were she was straddling me with her crotch on top of mine and to top it off I had a hard on. And then I felt it, she had started grinding against my member and it was wet. Then Annabeth moaned and so I started to move in sync with her grind she started to moan louder. She lifted her self up on her hands and arched her back thrusting her chest into my face, her breasts weren't exactly small she was really well developed for a sixteen year old. I didn't ever remember seeing her breasts this big because both of them were roughly the size of a basketball and was firm enough that it didn't sag in fact they were very perky. You would think that her back would be killing her but they were like anti-gravity breasts. Then I notice that she didn't have tan lines either her inter body was a golden honey color and her nipples were hard as pebbles.

I lightly kissed and caressed her nipples areola causing her skin to goose flesh and then I kissed along her breasts and stomach. Then I moved to her neck I had never realized how long and graceful it was before and the more I kissed the louder she moaned. I started to suckle her earlobe and moved down to the hollow of her throat. Then I moved to her breasts suckling, licking, kissing and softly biting which caused her to cry out. I would then lick and tongue her until the small pains passed. I did this until I reached her nipples again. Then I started to caress her sides and massage her butt. I kept going and suddenly she started moaning even louder until I felt that tell, tell stiffing in her legs she cried out in orgasm and gushed her cum all over my front covering my chest and belly. As she settled back down I thought _'How did she sleep through that?'_ and then I fell back asleep. I woke up again sticky with her drying cum when I felt her stir and then gasp when she realized what she did.

Well you can't stay asleep when someone knees you in the crotch. She was scrambling to get out and in doing so tried to end the Jackson line. She kneed me I groaned and at the same time grabbed her wrist so that we could talk it out. She stopped short and looked at me wild eyed while I recovered.

After about four minutes I finally could breathe and said "Leaving so soon?"

"I am so sorry I didn't realize-"

"It's alright Annabeth I was partly responsible for that."

"So those kisses were real!"

"Yes, now please don't let this come between our fledgling friendship." She looked doubtful and I said "Look this won't happen again unless one we start dating or two you need some help getting off." She still didn't look convinced so I pulled my least used but most effective face. I pouted my bottom lip making it quiver and gave her the big green eye look. She twitch, then quivered. I knew I had her when she snickered.

"Fine Seaweed Brain."

"Thank you oh, Wise One." I said with a mock bow. She started laughing out right and I lead her back to her room to get her stuff and then showed her her shower. I went back to my room showered washing the sweat and her cum off, shaved and alleviated my hard on. I slapped my hair back in a tail and got ready to put on my favorite set of clothes.

Before I got dressed I looked at my body in the mirror, my muscular definition was more pronounced. My pectoral muscles were the size of serving platters and they jutted out three inches thick, I had eight pack abs stood in relief from the rest of my flat and toned stomach and the muscles in my lower belly and groin were so clearly defined it was impossible not to stare. My back and thighs rippled with toned muscle, and my biceps and triceps were enormous. The bubble butt was tight and firm, all was well in that department. I noticed my arms and legs were longer, my shoulders were a little broader making my build more like a rapier. At least my arms, legs, and torso were proportional. My hands had grown twice as large as I remembered. Both longer and wider, and my fingers had nearly tripled in length making my hands look like giant spiders which were corded with muscle. My neck was a little longer than average.

I looked at my face it had lengthened and grew just a little wider; my lips were fuller and wider. They had a perpetually pouty appearance, the nose was longer and my nostrils flared out to create a tiger-ish affect, my cheekbones were prominent and shadows dripped off them. My forehead was long and wide, and my eyebrows were no longer a tangled mess they were for lack of a better term elegant in their shape and curvature. But the most startling change was my eyes; their resilience and intensity remained but it was as if I was looking through my reflection, looking through my mask to my innermost core. Seeing myself for what I really was rather than what I appeared to be. Their coloring was still a dark emerald green. But now there were flecks of silver, gold, ruby, sapphire, onyx, topaz, amethyst and several other types of precious and semi-precious gems and metals glittered in my eyes. Over the iris was an illusion of mother of pearl flames.

I got dressed deciding to wear a white shirt with a silver clasp that held a collar with three pleats on either side; it was set with a black cat's eye. Black slacks, silken socks, and shined black shoes. Over the shirt was a deep blue vest with sea green trim and gold buttons, a silver colored belt, a wine red waist coat, and an emerald coat that had gold trim and silver buttons that went down to my ankles and was sleeveless. I also had on a cloak that seemed to be made of every color and every hue of that color. I changed my hair which was waist length by now. I put it back into a top knot the braids from the three braids from each temple were inter woven with the top knot. I put a sapphire hair clasp in to hold the braids against my top knot. Some gleaming bronze brooches appeared and pinned the cloak at my throat. I got out the signet ring that bore my fathers symbol and slipped it on. It was gold with a giant square-ish starburst emerald set in it. The band was carved with bas-relief roses enameled to look like ivory white roses with the tips of the petals as red as rubies. The stems of the roses were green fading into gold as they lost definition and blended back into the band. The green was so true that it made the roses looked real the gold back ground still visible. Set around each side of the gem were six small stones shaped like miniscule spheres.

I walked out and then went to find Annabeth and Grover. They were both at the pavilion preparing to have breakfast when I invited them over to my table. Grover picked up his stuff and Annabeth changed direction and headed for my table while I gathered my stuff.

Grover was wearing a black robe for mourning and then I noticed that his horns had grown, a lot. I said "Grover when did your horns get so big."

"Oh they started growing after you gave me the Minotaur horn and I accidentally ate it."

"Oh" I said as I looked at Annabeth. She was wearing an ankle length two part dress of a rich blue color and the cut was a tear drop shaped one so as to showcasing her breasts. Annabeth's breasts were nearly the size of a basketball and were a rich honey color like the rest of her skin complexion. She was wearing a support for her breasts and to give her cleavage. The top was backless revealing a large expanse of skin on her back. She also had a naval ring in that had a ruby in it. The ruby had a small flaw that captured the light and made it look like a pool of blood. She was wearing a matching necklace and earrings. And she looked gorgeous so I told her so. She blushed and said "You don't look so bad yourself Percy."

"Thank you, you are to kind." I said tilting my head towards her.

"Stop it Percy you're making me blush." She said laughing. Her eyes sparkled and then she saw the shrouds and the laughter died and with it the sparkle. The shrouds had been made of the finest silk and to follow the old ways I put a golden drachma in each of their mouths for safe passage over the Styx.

The campers were gathered around the funeral pyres so that they might wish blessings in the deceased. We lit them and as the corpses burned each of the councilors would walk up on a platform and say a blessing. But a few cursed the perpetrator and some promised to avenge the dead.

Clarisse had taken the stage and said "We mourn the loss of our siblings but for Ares we promise vengeance on this –beep– and know this. When we find you, you will pay tenfold for what you did."

Annabeth walked up and after fidgeting for a minute she said "For those lost we wish peace thy souls. For the one who caused this loss, may you be in pain until your own corpse is cold.

When it came time for my turn I said "Permissum inhumanitas , cruciatus quod malum mores Insisto es latrocinium per totus suus dies. Take torqueo es partum Verto en him la inhumanus fortuna! And this feeling that we share it is right it should be so; Man was made for joy and woe; for joy and woe are intertwining, and even though we are lost in grief and pining, there still runs a shimmering joy a silver lining." I stepped down and had anyone paid attention they would have seen Luke run for his cabin room.

When he got there Luke started to scream in pain because he could now feel every stab wound he inflicted and he felt consumed by grief. Quickly he called on the powers Kronos had given him and then said "Free this half-blood release this gift let my pain be cast adrift" after completing the spell he walked back out with a bag of herbs and threw them over the fires claiming it was "…so that the gods would give safe passage."

After two more days Annabeth, Grover, Chiron and myself reconvened our meeting and when we had all got settled I said "Zeus and my dad their fighting?"

"Yes."

"It's something valuable isn't it?"

"Yes, its' Zeus's Master Bolt the symbol of his power," said Chiron "and the first part of your quest is to retrieve it. The second part will be revealed when you return."

"What exactly are we talking about here?"

Annabeth spoke up and said "Seaweed Brain, come on, it's a lightening bolt. To be more exact it's a two foot long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze capped on both ends with god level explosives!"

"Oh."

"Zeus's master bolt is the mold for all lightening bolts. It sheared the top of Mount Etna and threw Kronos off his throne. It packs such a large punch that it makes mortal hydrogen bombs look like snap dragon firecrackers."

"And it's missing?" I said.

"Stolen, to be more precise."

"By who?"

"By _whom_," said Chiron "and it was supposedly by you."

_"WHAT?"_

"Or at least that is what Zeus thinks. At the winter solstice during the last council your father and Zeus had the usual argument: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best!', 'Well at least you didn't have to spend five centuries in dad's small intestine!' etcetera. Well about half way through the meeting Zeus realized it was missing and accused your dad. Well naturally he denied it citing the cosmic law saying that a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power. He should have stopped there but continued to say 'at least not directly'. Well you can imagine how that went over. Zeus kicked Poseidon of Olympus created that tsunami that hit India last December. So they have been at odds since then. Zeus gave you dad an ultimatum after he claimed you. Have the master bolt back by the solstice and apologize or it means war. But your dad doesn't have it and his pride won't let him apologize so…"

"So my dad needs me?"

"Yes with out you he will enter a war that he doesn't want."

I hate to say it but my chest puffed up and I smiled and said "When do we start?"

Grover said "First you have to talk to the Oracle."

"Okay." I mean what's so hard about that?

Chiron said "Go to the attic and ask the oracle what your destiny is."

I walked up three flights of stairs and came to a dead end with what looked like a carving set in the solid wood of the wall. I splayed my hands out on the carving and started to poke and prod away until I pushed on the center of a flower and the wall panel to the left slid open. I walked through the opening into a huge dusty room filled with old rusted bits of armor, bent swords, broken spears and hundreds of trophies from past quests. There was a Hydra head with a label that read: Woodstock '67, I looked around and saw the most grotesque item up there. She would have been beautiful. Had long dark hair, nice complexion, decent body; she was wearing a leather strap to hold her hair back and she had on a tie-dye sundress. The only problem was she was a mummy.

I stared for about a minute and then it stirred. It looked around and then out of her mouth this green looking fog like pea soup in cloud form spilt out and a sibilant hiss was heard and a voice said _"I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo. Come forward seeker and ask."_

I blinked and then said "What is my destiny?" The fog shifted and took on a familiar form. I had gotten into the Star Wars movies so when Darth Sidious stood and faced me I wasn't really surprised. Darth Sidious spoke and said _"You shall go west and face the god who has turned, you shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned. You shall be betrayed by one you call friend. And fail to save what matters most in the end!"_ Then he drew his saber and said _"__But take heed, for I add a word of caution to this life: everything comes with a price, whether it be it loss of sense, pain, or sacrifice__."_

I walked out and stood in front of Chiron. He looked at me and said "Well, what did it say?" I stood there for a moment getting my bearings and then I started to recite it minus the part about a traitor friend, failing to save mom, and the word of caution but I stopped.

They stared for a few seconds and I said "That didn't come out right so I had Grover do the whole scene where Saruman is on the top of Orthanc and then I repeated it and it must have sounded pretty good because nobody moved for a minute and then Chiron said "Was there anything else?"

"No Chiron there's nothing else." I said but I had the feeling he knew I was holding out. For the next three hours we deliberated the meaning of the prophecy. The first part we figured we had to go to the Underworld and confront Hades because if war went on and Hades grew strong enough he could rise and take over. The second line was obvious but the third and fourth lines made no sense. So there was a spy. Who was it?

Finally we got down to brass tacks and I said "So when do we leave and what can we take with us?"

"You can take only what you can carry along with the easiest to pack parts of your armor." When Grover and Annabeth left I said "Chiron why me what did I do to deserve this?"

"Oh Percy it was nothing you did. Sixty years ago your father and his brothers swore to have no more hero children because they were just to powerful about fourteen years ago Zeus broke the oath and his daughter Thalia was doomed. She, two other half-bloods, and their satyr made it to the hill over there," Chiron pointed to the pine tree that I had stood by when my mom was killed "they got that far and Thalia sacrificed herself so that the others might live. Her father took pity and turned her into that pine tree. And now you are the son of Poseidon and Hades will try his damnedest to kill you don't give him that chance." I thought _'Oh great another major god wants me dead!'_ but I said "Why am I going on this quest surely there are other more capable campers…"

"Percy the reason you were chosen is because your father needs _you_ not some other hero but _you_. he has his hands tied if he apologizes then he appears weak if he doesn't he starts a war that he doesn't want. He is counting on you to succeed and prove his innocence."

I left going to my cabin there I changed into some swim trunks and took a dip in the lake. After I had worked out my frustration by working my powers to the max trying to make them a little more on the finer tuned end of the scale, I went and showered redressed in a white shirt with a silver clasp that held a collar with three pleats on either side; it was set with a black cat's eye. Black slacks, silken socks, and shined black shoes. Over the shirt was a silver vest with sea green trim and gold buttons, a red leather belt, and my emerald coat.

I walked to the amphitheater where the campers were throwing a party in remembrance of the dead campers. I danced with Selena; I reluctantly danced with Clarisse who for a big girl could move rather gracefully, and a couple of other girls. I sat down after a while with a glass of punch and looking around said to Grover who had joined me with a girl from Athena's Cabin "Where is Annabeth, she would be having fun."

The girl spoke up and said "She's not here she never comes to these things.'

"Why?"

"Bad experience with one of her dates. She hasn't come to one of these things in over three years."

"Well to bad if I can come and mingle so can she!" With that proclamation I headed towards Athena cabin.

I knocked on the door and she answered. She was wearing sweatpants, a midriff shirt and fuzzy slippers and when she saw me she squeaked.

"Can I come in Annabeth?"

"Uh, sure come on." She grabbed my arm and took me to the room in back. On the rear wall was a life sized map of the U.S. and the table was covered in blue prints. She sat and looked at me and I said "You weren't there so I thought I would come and collect you."  
"I don't want to go."

She had a sour expression and I looked at her and asked "You want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Aw, come on Annabeth what happened to the fearless daughter of the war goddess? You're not afraid of anything!"

"I don't want to go to the dance Percy!"

"Alright we won't go but you will have to dance with me here because I'm not leaving with out one."

"Fine!" she stood up and I took her hand in mine and placed the other on her waist she just stood there and looked at me quizzically. I said "Do you know how to dance?"

"Uh, no I never learned."

So I showed he were to place her hands and taught her the steps. We started slow and picked up speed. I taught her the two step, waltz, and the salsa. She taught me a few moves as well.

We had fun laughed and talked and over all enjoyed our selves. When midnight rolled around we went to bed. We still had to pack and tomorrow we left on our quest.

**Review so that I know what you think. Flames will be used to burn offerings to Hades**

**Aequora of Appalachian Mons montis, audio valde vox , flow aequora of creek , obviam Dimidium – Cruoris**

**Waters of the Appalachian Mountains, listen to the great word, flow waters of the creek, against the Half-Bloods**

**Permissum inhumanitas , cruciatus quod malum mores Insisto is latrocinium per totus suus dies. Take torqueo is partum Verto in him a inhumanus fortuna!**

**Let cruelty, torture and evil ways follow this villain through all his days. **

**Take the torment he creates to turn on him a crueler fate!**


	2. The Fates, Medusa, Echidna Oh My

**First off I would like to say that no copy write infringement is intended if I have done so please let me know and I will remove or amend the offending piece of fiction so that credit is given to were it is due. **

**The hand idea and a few plot twists came from Star Wars but it will be different so bare with me. Percy Jackson and the Olympians © Rick Riordan. Star Wars © George Lucas. Charmed is © of who ever made it. Lord if the Rings is © of the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien. I also used some other sites to get information I wanted so I should thank Wikipedia even if it is updated by anybody.**

**In this story some of the swords are lightsabers others are not so there we go why you say. Because the blade in the lightsabers is like celestial bronze turned to light and so it still reacts and is stopped by solid blades. Now the sabers can be made to be so hot that they melt through solids and cauterize stumps and other injuries.**

**The rings that are described are indeed from lord of the rings. In this reality the elves were a race of lesser gods that had mortal bodies. They were able to die and once dead moved to dwell in the halls of Mandos or Hades. The one ring was formed by Chronos (Kronos) and after he was cast down from Olympus and he had risen on Othrys there it follows the story line of the books by Tolkien until the end were instead of Frodo it is Zeus who finds and destroys the ring with the help of his brothers after that is the famous battle with Chronos and the rest is history the Nine Rings were given instead to other Titan Lords instead of men. The changes that are in the rings description and powers were done on purpose.**

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

The Lightning Thief

We had gone to bed at midnight and but I didn't leave Athena Cabin. I slept in the Lazy-Boy recliner by the water fall that they had in the cabin for decoration. With Annabeth's permission and after showing her how to alter her cabins physical structure she turned the place into a giant library except it was like what the library off of the Time Machine movie that they made in '02 and the holographic librarian was there too. I had however worked on a holographic projector like from the Star Trek and Star Wars movies and after installing about five in every room every thing was set. So I had enlarged the water fall so that it was twelve feet by five feet. A very large door, and set it up with a small water fall in my room so that we could talk with out having to leave the cabins and by using my powers I could create a door way between the two.

This had taken a few minutes and afterwards I slept by the water fall in a chair until four when I woke up. Why you say? Because even if I had slept all night it was in a chair, chairs are not comfortable to sleep in. So at four in the morning I walked through the water falls and it felt _weird_. It is one thing to walk through a door that is twelve feet tall but when it's twelve centimeters tall on the other side that is another story I felt like I was growing at a rapid rate when I stepped out of that water fall but I stripped to my birthday suit and crawled in the bed.

I woke up feeling well rested it was around seven o'clock and I was ready to pack. I got a satchel and paraphrasing a spell from my mothers' book which I had received as a gift from Chiron. He had gone to the old family manor that was sitting collecting dust and gotten it for me. I said _"Let Leather and Thread Grow, To Sizes not reached and be light so not to slow, Let limits stretch so you may hold, More than the normal mold"_ the leather satchel which was from my father started to shift and ripple. I looked and it was the same size but inside it was large enough to hold seven sets of clothes, my mechno-arms, my mail hauberk, as well, as bracers and greaves and there was still plenty of room to fit in a midget. The side pockets on the outside were the same size as before except now they were on both sides of the satchel not just the inside. The satchel itself was a red color with silver metal clips buttons and zippers. It was a nice bag and fit well with my attire.

After speaking with Annabeth and Grover and taking the extra that they couldn't carry in their bags and putting it in mine we were ready to go. Using the Poseidon cabin's quest account we exchanged for two hundred gold drachmas and three hundred dollars cash for each of us. I also was able to get three canteens of nectar and ambrosia bread which was similar to the ambrosia of the gods except it had been created by the children of Demeter on an enchanted isle called Fincayra and the city had been moved to the U.S. so we took the bread and stored it and then we headed off to the big house.

Every quest started the same way. You go get a pep talk and move on but this was different in this we each received a gift from Chiron. When we got to him he said "The stories that were written by Tolkien weren't real but the rings were. He opened his hand and there were the three rings of the elves Annabeth gasped and Grover bleated. Chiron continued speaking "Narya, the Ring of Fire, was of _mithril_ and set with a ruby; and Vilya, the Ring of Air, was of celestial bronze and set with a white diamond; and the mightiest of the Three, the ring Nenya, known the Ring of Water or Ring of Adamant, was of gold and set with a sapphire. Several years ago the stone set into Nenya was lost and so Hephaestus reformed it and set it with a stone called the Mist Pearl. He reformed the other two and reset the rings with deferent stones Vilya was set with the Dream Pearl a sister to the Mist Pearl and Narya was set with the Thought Pearl another sister to the Mist Pearl. The Mist Pearl had the ability to turn its' master into a Cumulus Nimbus cloud but it has a small amount of power in the realms of illusions and mental powers, The Dream Pearl has mastery of illusions and the Thought Pearl is empowered with the mental arts. Each pearl has a mastery in a certain area and a capability in the other two.

These rings have not chosen a ring bearer in over six thousand years and yet they chose you I am sure that by your nature alone you can tell who gets which ring Percy you get Nenya, Annabeth Narya, and Grover you get Vilya."

About this time I spoke up and said "but with the destruction of the One these rings powers were broken."

"That is true but there power has returned whether this bodes well for you or not is another matter," Turning to Annabeth Chiron said "Narya is described as having the power to inspire others to resist tyranny, domination, and despair in other words, evoking hope from others around the wielder, as well as giving resistance to the weariness of time. Because of the Thought Pearl it allows a more powerful mind and a greater strength in the Mental Arts." Invoking the rites of the old ways Chiron placed the ring on her left index finger and said "_Take now this Ring for thy troubles and thy cares will be heavy, but in all it will support thee and defend thee from weariness. For this is the Ring of Fire, and herewith, maybe, thou shalt rekindle hearts to the valour of old in a world that grows chill."_

Then he turned to Grover and said "Vilya's power was preservation, protection, and possibly concealment from evil, because of the Dream Pearl your illusions will be so real that in essence they will have life so long as you give it your direction," with Grover he also invoked the old ways and said "_Take now this Ring for thy troubles and thy cares will be of importance and in need of secrecy, but in all it will support thee and defend thee from weakness. For this is the Ring of Air, and wherewith, maybe, thou shalt refresh the hearts and minds of men to the reverence and nature of old in a world that grows cold and dead."_ He placed the ring on the same finger as Annabeth's ring had gone.

Finally he turned to me and said "Nenya as the most powerful of the three had the powers of the other two as well as some of it's own it was said to have the power to inspire others to resist tyranny, domination, and despair, as well as act as a source of preservation, and protection. But it's most useful powers were to heal, to cast illusions, to allow a sharp mind, and its most important power, to turn you into a cloud and allow a small amount of influence with the other clouds."

Chiron invoked the old ways again and said "_Take now this Ring for thy troubles, thy cares, and thy thoughts will be heavy and thy council sought in even the most trivial of manners, but in all it will support thee and defend thee from weariness and duress. For this is the Ring of __Water, and water is free flowing; it is the Ring of Adamant which is unyielding;__ and herewith, maybe, thou shalt invigorate the hearts and minds of men to the reverence and nature of old and rekindle hearts to the valour of a world that is long forgotten."_ He placed the ring on my right index finger.

He finished by saying "by excepting these rings you have promised yourself to a half-life while you will find that you can not be killed by mortal weapons you will find that it comes at a price. That price is your longevity. You will age but not properly from now on. You will reach the prime of each aspect of yourself and then you will be preserved until the ring moves to the next bearer. But it keeps your youth intact the ring stretches the moment the ring touched your skin to encompass the whole time you bear it. One ring bearer of the past said it was as if he 'was stretched out and thin…like butter over to much bread' so remember that this burden does not come lightly."

We took the rings and prepared to leave and follow Argus to the van. That was when I remembered I had no magical item other than the ring; I didn't even have a sword. But then Luke ran up to us and panting for breath said "Wait!"

We stopped and he handed me a set of sneakers. I looked at them and he said _"Maia!"_ They sprouted wings and started flitting around. I looked at them and said "Thanks Luke." He said goodbye gave Annabeth a hug and wished her good luck. She was blushing the whole time and I said "Annabeth you're hyperventilating."

"I am not!"

I smirked on the outside but screamed with jealousy on the inside. Ever since that night I had thought of nothing except how beautiful, and kind, and smart, and funny she was. He left and I looked at Chiron and said "I won't be able to use these will I?"

"No I am afraid not what with the sky being in control of the god that wants you dead."

Then a look crossed his face and he said "I almost forgot," he rummaged around in a sack for a minute and he came out with a pen that had a clicker on the bottom. I stared and then he said "click it Percy."

I clicked it and it turned into a really fancy looking lightsaber handle. It was about twelve inches long and it was a work of art. The end was rounded and the casing was silver with gold and emerald inlay for style. It had a wire hand guard and felt like it belonged in my hand. I flipped the blade on and a three and a half foot blade of mother of pearl light came out. It felt perfectly balanced and every thing. He said "Click the bottom again." I turned it off and clicked it and it turned into a pen. I put it in my pocket but I was worried it would get lost but then Chiron explained and demonstrated the enchantment on it that kept it from being lost.

So I went to join my friends and we left for Manhattan were we would catch a bus to Los Angeles.

In the van we talked and Grover showed us what he had packed. Grover packed a instrument that was around two feet long and looked like a cross between a piccolo, a clarinet, and a flute. It had little arms that ended in circular stops and they seemed to move on their own. It was carved to look like a tree branch that had rose vines and other floristic themed things. And he had packed a couple sets of clothes.

Annabeth had backed her clothes, a few books and a logic puzzle pyramid that when completed was a musical instrument because it had to be assembled around a miniature pipe organ and the vibrations from the organ passed through the Harmona wood that constituded each piece of the puzzle.

I had packed a few things like that I had packed the hands and a book of quotes as well as the Book of Shadows that had been my moms and were I had gotten the curse for the attacker at camp. I also packed a holographic projector that could project my favorite musical instrument. A keyboard one of the fancy upscale types that would allow you to edit and alter sound waves and pitches, I also packed a large five man tent that had been altered so that the center was the size of those tent like things you put in the backyard with the walls made of mosquito netting and branching off of that was five rooms; a kitchen, a bathroom, and three bed rooms. And lastly I packed three voice changers that could alter your voice making it higher or lower and because it had two speakers that were against the throat by playing the sound of a crashing wave against my throat I could sound like water. I gave the other two to Annabeth and Grover and we restuffed the stuff into my satchel.

We discussed weapons and I showed them my sword and then Grover said "That so totally rocks squirt!"

I looked at him and Annabeth took the hilt and examined it and finally she found what she was looking for because she then pointed out a line of runes and said "This is the ancient sword Anaklusmos or-"

"Riptide," I said, we had been driving for an hour when I said "So far so good we've gone sixty miles and not one monster."

"You shouldn't talk like that, Percy its bad luck."

"Remind me why you don't like me?"

"I do like you!"

"Oh, Annabeth I didn't realize I thought you where crushing for Luke!" I said holding my arms out for a hug. Apparently she didn't find it funny because she punched me and said "Not funny Percy!" In the front seat Argus winked at me with the one eye on the back of his neck.

Traffic slowed us down and by the time we got to a Greyhound bus station in Manhattan it was cold and raining, and it was after dark. We went to a nearby park and I pitched the tent and with a spell made it unseen to the mortal eye. We got up early the next morning and bought three tickets to Princeton and we embarked.

We were about to leave the station when three identical old ladies got on they were older and meaner looking and had several more wrinkles but Ms. Dodds was unmistakable they sat up front and the two by the isle crossed their legs and made an X it was clear that no one was getting off this bus. We were in the back and Grover was shaking and Annabeth looked like she had just seen a five hundred pound sixty year old in a Speedos swim suit.

We road all the way through New York and New Jersey and were just about to enter the next state when The three Dodds got up and headed our way we had just entered a tunnel. Annabeth gave me her hat and told me to slip up the isle. So I headed straight for the driver. By jerking the wheel and sending the bus into the side of the tunnel I bought us some time but it ran out when the bus careened off the road and started to shudder and break down. The Furies changed into their true forms and the mortals fled screaming of murdered old ladies and killer teenagers. I had drawn my saber hilt and activated Riptide and started to attack. I started swinging and Annabeth drew her dagger. She started to advance and then they each took into their hands a lightsaber hilt but when they activated it a whip came out instead. They flicked it at us and Grover started to throw tin cans. This distracted the Furies enough for me and Annabeth to charge. We where at a stalemate and Every time they saw Riptide they twitched but they said "Submit now and you will not suffer eternal torment!"

"Nice try!" I said but about that time Annabeth said "Look out!" and Ms. Dodds flicked the whip and wrapped it around my sword hand. I winced because it felt like my hand had been dowsed in kerosene and held over a match. Annabeth started to attack with a fury I had never seen but I swung the sword and separated Ms. Dodds head from her body. She screamed and then Grover charged another and head butted her into Annabeth who stabbed her but all that happened was she sliced Ms. Dodds wing open. Ms. Dodds growled and attacked with the whip but Annabeth wrapped it around her arm and yanked on it tearing it from her grasp Annabeth then took the whip and swung the handle into Ms. Dodds head stunning her Annabeth then stabbed her and then the last one seeing that she was out numbered started to wail. It rose in pitch until some of the windows shattered.

Racing off of the bus while grabbing our stuff we ran and then a buzzing sound filled my ears and I said "Dive to the ground!" We dove and about that time the bus was hit by lightning and exploded. We ran off into the woods and started to make our way along the road.

We had been walking for hours and had stopped for a rest when Annabeth grabbed her arm. She still held the whip in her hands like it was hers now. I took her arm in my hands and looked at it. The whip had burned the skin clean off and it looked like it was starting to ooze pus. I looked at her sternly and said "Annabeth you should have told me about this." while I held my hand over the wound and concentrated on the ring and healed it.

"I am a big girl Percy I don't need you to watch out for me all the time."

Grover said "Yeah Percy she'd be fine. Sliced up like a loaf of bread but fine." Annabeth scowled, while I sniggered. She said "Thanks Percy but I have one question?"

"What's that?"

"What was the rest of the prophesy?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"But I want to know!"

"I am not telling."

"Percy!"

"No!"

She gave me a puppy pout and right then I felt like kissing her but instead said "I shant say nothing if you don't say please."

Half chuckling she said "Percy come on, tell me."

"I shant say nothing if you don't say please!"

"Fine will you please tell me?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

"I said I shant say _nothing_ if you don't say please." Giving me a look that was all pouty and sad I steeled my resolve while she said "Percy please tell me."

My resolve crumbled and I said "The oracle said _'__You shall go west and face the god who has turned, you shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned. You shall be betrayed by one you call friend. And fail to save what matters most in the end. __A word of caution to your life everything comes with a price, whether it be loss of sense, pain, or sacrifice__.'_ Something is going to happen and when it does I will have to make a choice and what ever it is it will cost me one of the three items in the warning."

"I am sorry Percy."

"It's not your fault Annabeth, but thank you anyway."

We reached a clearing at around night fall so I got out and pitched the tent I had packed. It was massive for a tent and we had gotten every thing set up and with a snap of mine and Annabeth's fingers we had enough furniture to make it comfortable we went to our respective rooms and changed into something a little more relaxing. Annabeth came out wearing some sweatpants and a short midriff shirt that barely covered the bottom of her breasts. Grover was wearing a t-shirt and some shorts. I went into my room and changed into a pair of large basketball shorts that went to the middle of my calf but were snug around the waist. I grabbed a book and left without a shirt. I sat in my favorite chair which was a rocker recliner and cracked open the book and started to read.

After an hour or so of reading we got to talking and we played some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Annabeth was good she could bounce it off her shoulders and off her butt, which was nice and rounded. It was going good until it got to close to Grover's mouth and he ate it stem core and all. We started laughing and Grover dragged out his instrument that he said was simply called a horn. So Annabeth got her logic puzzle and had it working in two minutes during which I set up my piano. I started to play a song that I thought accurately described me. I played the song from Davy Jones's locket in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Annabeth's organ and harmona wood came in responding to the resonance of my piano. Grover started to weave notes from his instrument around the notes of my piece and I had recorded the whole thing so it was going to sound that much more better when I played it on a CD. We played until about eleven and then we called it a night. Grover went to his room and I started to put my piano away when Annabeth said "Percy?"

"Yes?"

"Why won't you let anyone close to you? I have tried to but its like there is a barrier and I can't cross it."

"I'm not doing it on purpose Annabeth it's more like a defense mechanism that I developed after my current step father made me start working as a gigolo I lost trust in people I had made several friends in a local school most of them were girls but there were several guys. In the course of the next school year I had sex with every one of my female friends at least twice and my male friends started to act like jerks. I found out that they had been setting them each up with me because they wanted to have sex and nothing more. So I don't let people close anymore all they have ever done is hurt me." I turned and went into my room closing the door. 

Had Percy stayed he would have seen that Annabeth seemed close to tears and she had a steely resolve in her eyes. The reason for both was Percy himself. The tears were caused by the fact that Annabeth in spite of herself she was falling head over heels for this dark mysterious boy who she barely knew. And the resolve was to push those feelings aside and be the best friend she could be. 

The next morning we packed and got ready to leave. Annabeth and I had an understanding now. She knew enough about me and I about her to make a friendship because while we had Grover and others we had both been through hard home lives and we could understand each other. Annabeth had told me a long time ago that she had run away from home when she was seven. Monsters were always after her and her father and step mother resented it. They had taken to ignoring her and so she left. I had been loved until I was seven and then my mother married Gabe and it all went down hill from there. I had taken a shower and he thought I was taking to long so he went in and dragged me out while I was naked and after seeing that his stepson was so well developed in the down stairs he made me work out until I had gained enough muscle. Then he started to set up a cliental and I was forced to be a gigolo. My mother had tried to stop it but when she did Gabe threatened her with all the debts she owed and how I was helping to pay it back. She tried to keep my innocence but it was not meant to be. So Me and Annabeth or Wise One or simply Wise as I had started to call her started a strong friendship that day.

The next two days if walking were spent telling each other about ourselves what we liked and disliked. I found that Grover wanted a Searchers License so that he could look for the lost God Pan. I remember the conversation because I had stretched out on the couch and Annabeth had snuggled right up next to me on the couch resting her head I the crook of my shoulder and Grover was in my chair because he wanted to try the vibrating feature.

_I said 'So Grover what are you going to do after this quest?'_

'_I am going to apply for a Searchers License so I can go look for Pan.'_

'_Why would you have to get a special license to go look for cooking spray?'_ What can I say it was a long day and I was tired _'Not Pam, PAN P-A-N the Lost God of the Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago. A lone fisherman off the coast of Ephesos heard a voice groaning as if in great pain and when the Fisherman called out 'Who's there?' the moaning shifted into a voice that said 'Tell them the great god Pan is dead!' When humans heard the news they believed it and have been reeking havoc on the world ever since.' He finished sadly. But he perked up as he said 'But we satyrs the faithful we have not lost hope and every generation the most powerful and bravest go to search. They scour the earth searching in the last remaining wild places trying to find him and wake him from his slumber, and even though not one not a single one has returned we do not give up hope._

'_And you want to be a Searcher and find this Lost God correct?'_

'_Yyyeess? Percy what do you have in mind?'_

'_Teach me woodland magic.'_

'_Percy I can't teach you it's not acceptable. It isn't forbidden but it just is not done!'_

'_Look Grover even the weakest demigod is stronger than the most powerful satyr. If the campers were taught the ways of nature and we focused our powers then we would have a little more green in the world and besides the spells that are woven by some of us can be permanent or at least they don't fade as fast!'_

'_Alright I'll teach you and Annabeth. She would get jealous if I didn't.'_ So me and Annabeth started to learn woodland magic.

Annabeth wanted to be an architect. She waxed eloquently about a large city that she wanted to build hidden from mortals where half-bloods could come and start their own life. They would have a choice they could live in the real world or they could live in city filled with their own kind.

They found out that I wanted to be an inventor and restore the power that once belonged to the name of Hallowell which was my mom's maiden name.

We took to avoiding cities when we saw a newspaper that had my picture in it. First it talked about how I was suspected for foul play in the disappearance of my mother and then there was another picture of me except it had Annabeth and Grover in it and under that picture it talked about how I and two accomplices had attacked and killed two old ladies and destroyed a Greyhound Bus. I was some kind of upset. After calming down we checked our rations and found that we had enough to last a while and so we headed for Pittsburg so that we could stop at a surrounding suburb to catch a train. We continued walking for a week and were now on the outskirts of Pittsburg headed for that little stretch of West Virginia between Pennsylvania and Ohio and we were out of rations and had not eaten anything since noon the day before.

Reaching a stretch of road that had not been used in years we walked along the road with the futile hope that someone would come along and give us a ride. We walked about a mile along the road when Grover's stomach started rumbling and he said something about smelling hamburgers. A little further down and across the road was a small warehouse with a bunch of sculpture pieces out front. It looked like it had been condemned but in the front where neon lights that Grover said spelled _Auntie Em's Garden Gnome Emporium_.

Flanking the entrance as advertised were two garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts smiling and waving like they were about to get their picture taken with Mickey Mouse. By now the smell of the hamburgers was strong enough for me to detect and I followed that enticing smell.

"Hey, Guys…" Grover said nervously.

"The lights are on inside," said Annabeth her eyes were glazed and she looked ravenous.

"Snack Bar," I said hungrily.

"Snack Bar," Annabeth agreed.

"Are you guys crazy?" said Grover.

We walked through the front lot which was filled with cement animals, children, even a cement satyr which gave Grover the creeps.

"_Bla-ha-ha_" he bleated "That looks like Uncle Ferdinand!"

We stopped at the front door of the warehouse but Grover said "Don't knock, I smell monsters!"

"Your nose is clogged with the Hudson," said Annabeth "All I smell are burgers, aren't you hungry?"

"Meat," he said scornfully "I am a vegetarian!"

"You eat cheese enchiladas and tin cans." I pointed out.

"Those are vegetables."

About that time a tall Middle Eastern woman stepped out of the door, or at least I thought she was Middle Easter because she wore long robes and a long veil which covered her entire face but for her eyes. Her hands where coffee colored and had wrinkles and all that and they looked worn but they were manicured and well cared for so I assumed it was some ones grandmother that had once been a beautiful lady. Her accent was vaguely middle eastern and had a sibilant quality to it when she said "It is to late to be out alone, children, where are your parents?"

"They…are…um," Annabeth started.

"We are orphans, part of a traveling circus." I said

"Orphans," the words sounded cold and forced "But surely not!"

"We have been separated from our caravan and we need to call our ring master."

"Oh, I am so sorry, forgetting my manners;" she said "I am Auntie Em come in and if you will go to the back where the dining area is I will fix you something to eat on the house!"

We thanked her and went inside. When we were out of ear shot Annabeth hissed "Circus caravan!"

"Always have a strategy, right? Besides I didn't see you coming up with anything better!"

"Your head is full of kelp."

"Well yours is full of feathers and cotton fluff."

The inside was filled with more statues in different poses and clothes. It would have had to be a garden the size of the Mall of America for all those statues to fit because they were all life sized.

Call me crazy for walking into a strange shop in the middle of no where but I was hungry and Auntie Em's burgers were like laughing gas in the dentist's chair. It made everything else fall away I didn't notice Grover's whimpers, or the looks of warning that the statues were giving me, or the fact that Auntie Em had locked the door.

We got to the dinning area and there was a fast food counter with fries, burgers, popcorn chicken, and hot dogs; there was a pizza buffet, and a Chinese food buffet. It was paradise. There was also a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser as well as about twelve red oak tables. We sat down and Auntie Em got plates and started to pile food from the Chinese and Pizza buffets on, and then she went behind the fast food counter and started to fry up some fries and burgers. Me and Annabeth started wolfing down food. Now there was another thing about Annabeth. She was about five eight and is a tiny little thing but she eats enough for six and doesn't gain an ounce. Back to the story Auntie Em was frying up some more food and Me and Annabeth had gotten through six pieces of pizza and about five fresh orders of fries before we remembered to breath when Grover said "Do you guys hear any hissing?"

We listened but didn't hear anything. Auntie Em said "You might be hearing the fryers grease Grover, you have very keen hearing."

"I take vitamins."

"That is admirable but please try to relax, ok?"

She came around and watched us through the veil she wore and when we had finally had enough to eat I said "So you sell garden gnomes?"

"Yes but since the interstate was put in I have not had a lot of costumers." She finished sadly.

We chatted for a while about anything that came to mind when she said "Would you three be willing to take a picture I have not had the desire needed to make a new set of statues in a long time and you have inspired me!" We agreed and she placed me and Annabeth side by side with our arms around each other with Grover off to the side playing a set of pipes. She said she was going to make it so that it looked like a couple on a picnic with a satyr in the background playing romantic music. She said that Annabeth and I made a lovely couple. I coughed and Annabeth blushed. Grover started shifting from hoof to hoof nervously.

My neck started tingling like when you can feel someone watching you. I craned my neck and looked around but there was only a statue of a Lady that had been dressed in robes and wore a crown. It almost looked like a life sized Queen chess piece. It gave me a sad look and I turned back to Auntie Em and said "You made all these yourself?"

"Oh yes, I used to have two sisters to help me in my noble work. But alas, they have perished and I am alone, so alone. That is why I make them so that I will no longer be alone. They are my company, my friends." Her voice was filled with a deep sadness and regret. I could not help but feel sorry for her.

But Annabeth had stiffened and said "Two sisters?"

"Yes it is a tragic tale, not meant for ones so young," she groaned "But I will tell you. You see, Annabeth, there was a woman that I was faithful to. I served her diligently for many decades but I had a lover, and this woman; this person I would have considered a friend decided that we should not be and so she determined that we should part ways. I disobeyed her the first time in over two hundred years for this woman had provided longevity. I disobeyed and this woman caused a terrible accident. The accident stripped me of my beauty and she cursed me with immortality. My sisters shared my burden for a time but they have faded and I am all that is left, Annabeth." She sounded cold and hateful at the end and I couldn't help but feel sorry. But my body was betraying me and I was getting sleepy because of my full stomach. Annabeth started shaking me and she called my name. I knew that it was important and I tried but it felt like some one was smothering my mind and slowing down my response time. But Auntie Em said "Come on dear settle down just one picture."

"I don't think we should ma'am!"

"Sure we can," I said. I was a little irritated at Annabeth for being so rude to a lady who had just fed us for free. "It's just one picture, Annabeth. What's the harm?"

Annabeth glared at me and so Auntie Em reposed us and she stepped back but now my mind was starting to speed up and I said "Not much light for a photo is there?"

"There is enough, at least enough for us to see each other." She kept coming and she moved Annabeth and myself till we were lying back with Annabeth's head on my chest and my arm wrapped around her shoulders. She said "You have such beautiful eyes Annabeth, only once have I seen eyes so beautiful." That set alarm bells ringing and both me and Annabeth had tensed and with a flick of my wrist a tiny little pen the size of a toothpick sprang into my hand. Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him and said "That _really_ looks like Uncle Ferdinand."

"Grover," Auntie Em chastised "Look this way dear."

I had just noticed that she didn't have a camera in her hands.

"Percy-" Annabeth started but she was interrupted when Auntie Em said "I cannot see at all with this cursed veil…"

"Percy, something is really wrong about this." Said Annabeth

Auntie Em was reaching up to let the veil loose and said "Wrong nothings wrong. I am in the presence of noble company. What could be wrong?"

Grover cried out "That _is_ Uncle Ferdinand!"

Annabeth yelled "Don't look at her!" She pushed me to the ground whipped out her Yankees cap and disappeared. I could here Grover scrambling in the opposite direction and I was looking at Auntie Em's sandaled feet. I heard a strange rasping sound like a snake slithering over carpet and I looked up at Auntie Em's hands. They had become twisted and gnarled like she was in the last stages of rheumatoid arthritis and instead of fingernails there were bronze talons. I almost looked higher but Annabeth threw a ball that you put in your garden at me and clonked me in the head and said "Don't look you idiot!"

"Well _soorry_ I didn't realize we were fighting Medusa!" I yelled back. There was more rasping like hundreds of tiny snakes from where Medusa's head should have been.

"Such a shame to destroy a handsome face such as yours, please stay Percy. All you have to do is look up." Medusa called soothingly.

I fought the urge to look and with a snap of my fingers my armor replaced my clothes and the helmet turned into a circular shield that was kicked out of my grasp. I thought back onto the myths and realized that my name sake had killed her in her sleep. She was nowhere near asleep right now and if she wanted she could rake my face into six strips.

"The Grey-Eyed One did this to me Percy," said Medusa. She sounded nothing like a monster more like a sad old woman who had truly lost the will to live and while she could not die she just simply endured. "Annabeth's mother, the thrice cursed Athena, She did this to me she turned me from a beautiful woman into this- this- this monster!" she cried.

Don't just sit there and listen you great useless lump," shouted Annabeth from somewhere in the statuary. "Run, Percy!"

"Silence, you insolent little brat!" Medusa snarled. Her voice shifted back into a comforting purr but I had shaken myself out of the trance and cleared my thoughts from the fog that clouded them and drawing on the powers of the ring said in a voice that echoed and reverberated in the air and through the mind "Tell me what you seek of this venture Medusa~elda?"

"The girl must be destroyed! She is the daughter of my enemy and just as likely to betray your heart! But you dear boy, you need not suffer." She sounded as if this and this alone would make her the happiest woman on earth.

"I cannot allow that Medusa~elda she is my friend." I shifted and tensed my legs so that I could jump and roll in the direction that my shield lie.

"Do you really want to be a pawn of the gods?" Medusa asked "Do you understand what awaits you on this quest? What will happen when you reach the Underworld if you even reach it! Don't be a pawn my dear. You would be better off as a statue it causes less pain. Less pain."

"Percy!" behind me I heard what sounded like a two hundred pound humming bird coming in fast. I ducked and a loud _'CRACK'_, a scream and angry hissing followed. I used the distraction and dove for my shield. I got it and I heard "You miserable little satyr I will add you to my collection and break your horns off!"

"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back. I hid in some statuary using the shield to see what Medusa truly looked like. She was about six feet even and her face was strange looking. It had a human mouth and nose which was long and aristocratic looking but her tongue was long and forked like a snakes and her eyes were owl eyes. The skin of her face was a light tan color and around her eyes and along her forehead it was covered in the same color of feathers as her skin. But her hair was made out of thousands of little green garden snakes that reached to her knees. But while her eyes were like owl eyes they were covered in a violet film that seemed to channel her petrifying power.

Grover swooped down and thwacked her again.

"Aargh!" Medusa yelled her hair hissing and spitting.

Right next to me some one grabbed me and said "Percy!" I jumped and said "Don't do that Annabeth!"

"Sorry." She took off her hat and became visible. She sat and caught her breath and then she said "You have to cut her head off."

"You are crazy! I say we grab Grover and leave."

"We have to Percy she is a menace! I don't think she is evil but she can't control her ability! I would do it my self but," here she swallowed as if she was making a difficult admission "but you have the better weapon," Like I said something difficult "Besides she would slice me to little bite size pieces because of my mother. But you have a chance."

"What do you mean I have a chance?"

"Do you want more people turned to stone?" She pointed to a pair of teenagers who were frozen in the throes of passion. Annabeth grabbed a green ball and said "Look at her reflection, a polished shield would be better-" she caught sight of the shield in my hand and punched me saying "You could have told me!" I snickered and she continued "Look at her reflection never directly…" I had stopped paying attention as I tried to remember a spell I had seen in the book of shadow. I shushed Annabeth who didn't look real happy about being shushed until I told her my plan. She went wide eyed as I took my glasses in my hand and said "Magic forces give me true sight, enchant glasses so that I can fight, allow this Demigod to start seeing, so I can fight this evil being!" the glasses glowed and then the metal turned gold and it looked like my earpieces and the metal that surrounded the lenses had been changed to look like little vines had wrapped around the metal frames with leaves and everything. I put them on and saw Annabeth she looked just fine so I looked at Medusa and was surprised to see a hunched figure the snakes had gone pure white and her face was lined with wrinkles and her eyes although they were filmed over still seemed haunted by age and loneliness but I was able to her just fine. About the time I was ready to fight Grover said "I think she's unconscious!"  
_"Roooaaarrr!"_

She smacked Grover into the arms of a Grizzly Bear with a _'crunch'_ I turned myself into a cloud and teleported in front of Medusa.

I was pale and washed out looking but you could still see what color my hair and armor was but because of my vaporous form if the light caught me just right I had mini rainbows arc off me. Down along the ground where my emerald coat touched the ground it looked like the mist that came off of Hades' robes in the Disney movie of Hercules. Using the illusion of the ring and making myself look like Poseidon. I looked Medusa square in the face. Annabeth called out using her voice changer to mimic my voice "You have fought many wars and slain many men, Medusa~elda, and made peace afterwards. Can we not take council as we once did, my old friend? Can we not have peace?"

Medusa had a venomous look and said "What do you want Poseidon? Come to pity me once more? Or should I call you Percy? You think you can fool me? I shall never rest until I have had my vengeance and we shall never have peace!"

I turned back into my solid form and said "We shall have peace... We shall have peace, when you answer for the changing of all of the innocents in this place, and the children that lay as stone there! We shall have peace, when the lives of the innocents whose bodies were change even as they dieing at your feet in front of the gates of Athens, are avenged! When you hang from a gibbet for the sport of your own crows... we shall have peace!"

Medusa had moved on top of the warehouse calling down said "Gibbets and crows! FOOLS! What do _you_ want, Annabeth Grey-One? Let me guess. The key of Orthanc? Or perhaps the keys of Mount Olympus itself? Along with the crowns of the twelve Olympians and the Eye of the Fates?"

I said to her "The house of Poseidon now stands against you. Your fate is soon to be sealed!"

"What is the house of Poseidon, but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll on the floor with the dogs! The victories in your life do not belong to you, Octavius Hallowell! You are a lesser son of greater sires."

I had to admit that one hurt. It was one thing to insult me but to attack where I was most insecure. We shall say that it enraged me, yes that is a good description to put it mildly. I snuck away and finding the access panel had flipped on all the lights and was making my way up the fire escape. I was going to kill me a monster.

Annabeth distracted her by saying "You mentioned what would happen once we reached the Underworld! Tell us and we shall spare you!"

"Save your pity and your mercy! I have no use for it!" Medusa screamed.

"You are a monster you might have heard something we could use!"

"Ah," Medusa hissed "So you have come for information. I have some for you. Something festers in the heart of the West. Something that you have failed to see. But the great lord has seen it. Even now, he presses his advantage. You are all going to die!"

Annabeth and Grover exchanged looks and Grover said "Tell us what you know!"

"You withdraw your guard and I will tell you where you doom will be decided! I will not be held prisoner here!"

About that time I stepped behind her and as I said "Spirits of Air, Forest and Sea, Set us of this monster free, Beasts of Hoof, Paw, and Shell, drive this monster back to hell!" As I finished the spell Medusa doubled over and groaned and while she was distracted I brought my sword down. With a hum and a _schlock_ her head was removed from her body and while her head rolled down the side of the warehouse her body burned with flames and with a explosion her body disintegrated into ash.

I teleported down and was about to walk away when something hit the ground with a _thud_ and rolled into my leg. I felt little tugs on my socks as the snakes from Medusa's hair died and felt something oozing into my shoe. Grover said "Yuck!" I could still hear it hissing and gurgling as the blood drained from the head. Grover could too because he said "Aw, mega-yuck!" Annabeth reached down with a towel and draped it over Medusa's head. I looked at her and asked "Why didn't it disintegrate with the rest of her?"

"It is just like the Minotaur horn, or the Furies whip, you defeated her in battle it is a spoil of war." She stood up and I looked over at the head to see it was still dripping green blood.

"You ok?" she asked her voice trembling. I could tell she was about to lose it and so I wrapped my arms around her and said "Yeah I'm fine Annabeth." She settled into my embrace and placed her head right over my heart which was going ninety to nothing. Grover climbed down from the Grizzly bear with a groan. He had a welt on his forehead and his Rasta cap was hanging off a horn, and his fake feet had been knocked off and the shoes were flying around his head.

I turned to him and said "Red Baron that was some great flying."

He grinned and said "That was not fun, well the hitting her with a stick part was, but the flying into a concrete bear was not." He snatched his shoes out of the air and I deactivated Riptide and placed it back in my pocket. I carried Annabeth with Grover following behind me into the warehouse.

After digging around behind the counter we found some bags and double wrapped the head. Annabeth had recovered some what and I asked "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"

Annabeth glared and said "Actually we have Poseidon to thank for this monster. Poseidon was Medusa's lover and she and her sisters broke into the temple of Athena. My mother turned them into the three Gorgons."

"Don't blame me!"

"Well she wanted to smash me but she wanted to preserve you as a nice little statue. She's probably still sweet on your dad, you probably remind her of him."

"So its my fault we ran into Medusa?" My face was white with anger.

Annabeth straightened and in a bad imitation said _"__It's just one picture, Annabeth. What's the harm?"_

"Just forget it, you're impossible!"

"You're insufferable!"

"Your-"

"Guys!" Grover snapped "You BOTH are giving me a migraine and satyrs don't even get migraines! Now what are we going to do with the head?"

I was mad. Not just at Annabeth or her mom. But at all the gods for whole quest, for blowing us off the road, for causing us to be in two major battles against two powerful sets of monsters in less than two weeks! At this rate we would never reach L.A. alive, let alone before the solstice.

What had Medusa said _'Don't be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off a statue…'_

I stood up and said "I'll be back."

"Percy where are you going?" Annabeth called after me. I searched the back until I found Medusa's office. I went in and opened the cash register and safe with my special brand of lightning that flash froze everything instead of superheating it. I looked for her accounts ledger and found the address for the Underworld at DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I took the five hundred dollars from the register, the three ten pound sacks of gold drachma, a shipping box with a Hermes Overnight Express slip and pouch; and went and set at the table. I started packing the head into the box and Grover said "Percy there not going to like this!" I had filled out the slip:

The Gods

Mount Olympus

600th Floor,

Empire State Building

New York, NY

Best wishes from

Your humble servant,

Perseus Octavius Hallowell- Jackson

Annabeth took one look at the slip and spewed her shake all over the table and said "Percy you can't do that!"

"Oh yeah, watch me!"

I filled the pouch to the brim and closed it. It floated off the table and with a sound like a cash register and _!pop!_ it was gone. She looked at me and said "They will think you're impertinent!"

"I am impertinent!" I said glaring, daring her to criticize me.

She didn't. She just sighed like she was resigned to the fact that I had a special talent at ticking off the gods. She grabbed my arm and said "We need a new plan."

I used a spell that shrank all of the food and erecting our tent we stocked it in the fridge, the pantry, or some place else. We then settled in for the night and had another talk about our plans we decided to wait until morning in the hopes that something would come to us during the night.

Once again Annabeth joined me in my room due to her nightmares. But this time we just talked a little. "How are you Percy?"

"I'm fine." I said I was still a little mad at her for what she said.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think and just said whatever came to mind!" she pleaded half tearfully. Annabeth was not a crier and if she was tearful then that nightmare must have been a whopper. I held her close and said "It is quite alright we were both tired and said things we didn't mean."

I said a little later "Your pretty good with that knife."

"You think so?"

"Anyone who can piggyback ride a Fury, and yell toe to toe with Medusa is good in my book."

She calmed down a little though she was still sniffling some so I held her and hummed the melody we had played that other night and kissed her brow and slowly she drifted off into the realms of Hypnos and Morpheus.

The next morning I woke up and Annabeth was gone so I went into the kitchen and started to cook breakfast. I had walked into the kitchen wearing a loose fitting pair of sweats that were fitted to my waist and free everywhere else. The material was thin and partly see through and because I was not wearing any underwear my cock and balls were swinging free between my legs. Annabeth came in to the kitchen with her usual casual clothes on minus the top her pert breasts visible for all to see and bouncing with each step. She sat down to a breakfast of biscuits, cream gravy, eggs, sausage, with milk. She smiled and proceeded to eat half the sausage and eggs while I took the other half and then we split the rest by thirds. We then put the rest in the microwave and went to our own rooms to get ready for the day.

I had tried to control my body so that I wouldn't get a hard on in the kitchen but was only half successful. Especially since she could occasionally get to much on her fork and it would fall on to her breast which she would lift off with her fingers and suck it clean. I was half hard through breakfast and after watching her eat and wash her dishes, her breast jiggling and shifting with her every move I was harder than granite. I went into my room and pulled down my pants.

My cock sprang to attention while I gathered my stuff for a shower. I started the water and once it was steaming hot I got in. I ran my hands over my pects and abs caressing my skin with feather light touches. I leaned against the shower wall flexing my abs and stroked my length rubbing and edging myself to the point of no return and with a grunt release was mine. Afterwards I washed my now waist length hair and put the Aphrodite Hair Care conditioner in making my hair silken smooth and midnight black.

Later I came out dressed in a silvery-grey turtle neck shirt that was like a second skin except it was less constricting. Loose flowing grey slacks that where tailored to my waist and butt with a black belt followed along with a deep turquoise vest and my emerald green robe coat combo. It was long reaching my ankles but where a cloak went over a jacket this was attached at the collar and along the sleeves. I had allowed myself to grow a goatee and because of my melanin disorder the more I had tanned recently the paler I had become so I looked completely different then when I had started camp. Annabeth was wearing a pair of long gaucho pants with a tight top that was of a lower cut and a mid-thigh length jacket made of some light weight airy material. Her hair which had been blond had turned the color of pearls because of the ring. It was slowly changing us all in small almost meaningless ways like hair color and skin tone. It had grown to around her calves and was loose ringlets that glinted in the sunlight. Grover had just grown older looking and looked about the age he was supposed to. He was wearing his jeans, a t-shirt and a jacket with tons of pockets. His Rasta cap looking a little frayed around the edges. We walked into this small town named Dead Waters it was a cheerful little place and the train came about an hour late but we were more than happy to stay with the guy who kept talking about death and the end of the world. We climbed on that train faster than you can say "GET ME OUT OF THIS CRAZY PLACE!" Grover had started to look pale when the man had started to talk about sacrificing goats.

We spent two days on the Amtrak train. We couldn't afford a sleeper compartment so we slept in our chairs Annabeth by me and Grover across from us. We talked about this and that and me and Annabeth read in our books while Grover sleep through everything. I remembered seeing a herd of Centaurs and there was a little boy in there. It looked like someone had combined a second grader and a Shetland pony the boy waved at me and I smiled sadly back. What would it be like to be so free? To have no other concern other then where you would be the next day?

The train stopped in St. Louis and there was a three hour layover until we started for Denver, Colorado. Annabeth had seen the St. Louis Arch and so dragged me and Grover to where we would get on. The entrance was about a mile from the station and underground so we walked through the museum looking at stuff from the 1880's when I asked Grover "Do you smell anything?"

"Underground," Grover said distastefully "Always smells like monsters. The air doesn't circulate as well." But something felt wrong we shouldn't be here.

We had been walking though the museum for about an hour while Annabeth rattled on about how she would have changed this and altered the design to make bigger windows and a see though floor. We stopped and she said "I want to do something like this." She sounded wistful and so I said "Like this monument?"

"Yeah," She looked at me and continued "I want to build a monument to the gods something that will stand for a thousand years and still not fade."

I looked at her and against my better judgment I started to laugh I just couldn't imagine Annabeth sitting still that long. She looked at me and said "What! Athena expects her children to create things not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes!"

I stopped short and she turned ashen and with a look that said she had stuck her foot in her mouth again said "I'm sorry, that was mean of me." I watched the brown waters of the Mississippi churn by and said "Can't we work together even Poseidon and Athena cooperated on some things right?"

Annabeth had a look of deep concentration. "The chariot," she stated tentatively "My mother made it but Poseidon created horses out of the crest of sea waves. They had to work together to make it complete." She finished with a resolute look.

"Then we can cooperate to right?"

We moved towards the lift and then she said "I suppose." I flashed her a brilliant smile and she smiled wide in return.

We were placed into groups for the lift and in mine, Annabeth's, and Grover's was a short fat lady clothed completely in denim. She was so large she looked like a giant blue blimp. We got into the tiny little car and started to head towards the top. I had almost mastered my nerves when the blimp said "No parents?"

"Their below, afraid of heights."

"The poor things." She said her little Chihuahua growled and she said "Now, sonny you behave."

"Sonny," I said "is that his name?"

"No," the lady told me closing the subject.

The observation deck was like a tin can with carpet. One whole wall was glass and on either side of the glass was wide flat space so it wasn't that bad I guess, but if there was one thing I hated more than enclosed spaces it was enclosed spaces six hundred feet above a river. We walked around until the park ranger said that the deck was closing everybody piled into the car and only me, the old lady, a park ranger and a family of three remained. I sent Annabeth and Grover on to the car and they went down. I smiled at the old lady. She smiled back with her forked tongue flickering. I took a double look and her stupid little Chihuahua started yapping. She tried to calm it down and started talking to it trying to reason with it but she said "All right sonny but there are all these nice people here do you really think it a good time?" The kid with the family said "Doggie!" His parents pulled him back. Foam was dripping from the dog's mouth and slowly I said "Did you call that Chihuahua your son?"

"_Chimera,_ dear, it's an easy mistake to make." She said rolling up her sleeves to reveal scaled arms and her eyes changed and had slit pupils. The dog kept barking and started to grow and the little boy screamed. His parents pulled him towards the exit only to plow into the park ranger who stood paralyzed gapping at the monster. As it grew it changed the head turned into a lions head complete with blood caked mane, it had the body and hooves of a goat and a giant fifteen foot cobra for a tail. The rhinestone collar remained but the tag was the size of a man hole cover and read: CHIMERA-RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POSINOUS-IF FOUND PLEASE CALL TARTAROUS-EXT. 945. It was so big that it's back rubbed against the top of the observation deck. I had not even had time to draw my sword, and I knew if I moved the creature would lunge.

The snake woman made a hissing sound that was laughter and said "You should feel honored, Percy Jackson! Lord Zeus has not let me test a hero with one of my brood in many centuries! For I am the mother of all monsters, the terrible Echidna!" She had started coughing at the end ruining the effect that and I just blinked slowly and said "Isn't that a type of Anteater?"

Her faced became a mottled greenish-brown and she said "Ohh I hate it when people say that! Curses on Australia for naming that ridicules animal after me! For that my son shall destroy you!" The Chimera lunged at me and I managed to dodge out of the way and landed next to the small family. I couldn't let them get hurt so with a snap of my fingers and a flick of my wrist my armor was on and my sword activated and in hand with a loose reverse grip. I yelled "Hey, Chihuahua!" It turned faster then expected and as I raised my blade and slashed cutting it across its muzzle. It roared and with a fetid breath a blazing inferno was released. I turned to cloud form and released my cold aura. The carpet burst into flames and still managed to singe my vaporous eyelashes. But around me was a circle of hoarfrost spreading out covering the metal with it's white film. A ragged hole had been formed in the wall behind me and the edges glowed cherry hot. I fought and slashed until I found an opening. I sliced it's head right off but not before it sank the fangs of it's tail into my leg. I groaned as the venom was forced into my veins and Echidna said "You have bested my son but now you must best me. She started to change and grow until she was seven feet tall in long dark robes and that had a deep hood that was attached and hid her face from view she looked just like a female Palpatine but then her legs rippled and shifted and were two human legs had been twelve webbed octopi tentacles now writhed. Each one ended in a sharpened and polished claw. But in her hand was a sword it's reach was incredible. It reached out at least four feet and flickered between a lightsaber and a regular sword. I attacked even though my leg was giving me issues. I slashed and parried and thrust and did every thing in my power not to get killed but she had already stabbed me in the thigh but I was slowly gaining ground until finally she tried to jump over me and separate my head and shoulders. I ducked and using a wide swing that took out anything knee level around me I turned and faced her she kept coming at me and then she flipped over me and her hood came off as I swept around and took out the five inch thick five thousand degree proof window with my lightsaber blade. It blasted outward raining shards of glass on those below. I finally was able to disarm her and she fell back against the wall but I was distracted by her feint at the mortals and she knocked my blade spiraling down to the water. I stood there in shock while she said "They don't make heroes like they used to do they?" she hissed almost gleefully. I growled but she seemed in no hurry to finish me off now that I was beaten. I looked at the family and park ranger. The little boy was behind his fathers legs. I had tried to save them I couldn't just… die I had some business to attend to. She said "Even now you have no faith the poison courses threw your veins, you are dieing." I stared at her "If you are truly the son of Poseidon," Echidna hissed "You would not fear water. Jump Octavius Hallowell; show me that water will not harm you. Jump and retrieve your weapon. Prove your blood line!"

I looked at the water and thought _'Yeah Right!'_ I had read where a man had jumped into water a few stories high it was like jumping onto solid concrete. At this height I would splatter on impact. Echidna's hand started to spark with purple-ish lightning I backed towards the edge of the aperture and looked down again.

Echidna said "You have no faith, you do not trust the gods not that I blame you the gods themselves are faithless."

My breath was slowing down and I could feel my heart sputtering in my chest. I then remembered the warm feeling when I was a child; that smile. Then I remembered that swirling green trident above my head when he had claimed me. But this was not the Sea and so there was no Sea God here.

"Die Faithless One," Echidna rasped and the lightning shot from her hand. It was as if it were all in slow motion. As the lightning flew towards me I prayed _'Protect me Father!'_ the lightning hit and I was blasted out of the gaping hole in the side of the monument plummeting towards the water.

**Review so that I know what you think. Flames will be used to burn offerings to Hades. Readers if you would please review it would be helpful so that I can get some ideas for the next chapter.**


	3. The new additions are Charming I'm sure

**First off I would like to say that no copy write infringement is intended if I have done so please let me know and I will remove or amend the offending piece of fiction so that credit is given to were it is due. **

** The plot and characters will remain fairly similar to the book itself but don't write me off yet this is the first one I have written and I could use some help and ideas so…** Percy Jackson and the Olympians © Rick Riordan. Star Wars © George Lucas. Lord if the Rings is © of the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien. Charmed is © of whoever made it. I also used some other sites to get information I wanted so I should thank Wikipedia even if it is updated by anybody.

**First off I would like to say that no copy write infringement is intended if I have done so please let me know and I will remove or amend the offending piece of fiction so that credit is given to were it is due. **

** The plot and characters will remain fairly similar to the book itself but don't write me off yet this is the first one I have written and I could use some help and ideas so… Percy Jackson and the Olympians © Rick Riordan. Star Wars © George Lucas. Lord if the Rings is © of the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien. Charmed is © of whoever made it. I also used some other sites to get information I wanted so I should thank Wikipedia even if it is updated by anybody.**

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Thiefs and Traitors

Chapter 3

I Meet the War God

Grover and I watched as Percy fell towards the river, I tried to not watch but I couldn't help it. Just when he reached the half way point he disappeared it was as if the air folded around him and he was gone. Grover started to panic so I couldn't, after Grover had calmed down we moved over by the newscasters so that we could find out what was going on.

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I was falling and with each parsec I was picking up speed. And suddenly I was hanging upside down over a grey marble floor that looked like what the walls of the cabin had been made of before I changed them.

I looked around and saw two thrones that were made of sea glass. One looked to be the colors of the deep sea and was delicately carved to resemble swirling mist made solid, while the other was the color of the ocean when it is shallow and full of life a greenish color and was large and carved to look like a giant bivalve shell. On the blue black throne a woman sat. Her robes rippled and flowed around her like water and was a deep black color like the ocean at night when the stars reflect in it and she appeared to be young somewhere around my mother's age but her eyes they seemed to stretch into the past as if they had seen everything and yet all that she saw now was new. She looked at me and said in a voice that I had only heard when Stargate: SG1 had the Goa'uld on the show "So step-grandson tell me, how do you like the world of the Olympians?"

Before I could answer a shadow appeared in the green throne and said in a deeper more vibrant yet similar voice "I see you have met my wife unfortunately we can not talk long we can only hold the poison at bay for a short time you must heal yourself under your own power." The shadow had solidified into a tall man with a long white hair and a beard to match. But he looked different because his hands were webbed and out of his temples grew these horns then curled around like a goats horns except they went around his ears circling twice and then turned out like a longhorns horns and then instead of ending in points they ended in lobster claws. But the weirdness didn't end there instead of legs he had a single long tail that had three moving fins like an eel. He said "You might not know us I am Oceanus titan lord of the Circling Sea source of all fresh water on Earth and the source from which all the springs that feed the ocean and other fresh water bodies."

"And I am Tythes the Titan Lady of the ocean deeps mysteries, and my husband is correct we must use you as a messenger and delivery boy." She smiled sadly and I understood that even though she was being very blunt she really did want to talk longer. Oceanus looked at me and said "I need you to deliver a few tokens to one of my sons. He is the river god for the Mississippi river we cannot leave at the moment because we are looking into the message that Tythes needs you to deliver to the Council of the Olympians on the solstice."

"But Zeus won't listen to me he thinks I stole his symbol of power!"

"He will listen to my council or he will risk an argument among the gods that could last for centuries," said Tythes. She got up and stood before me and with a blink I felt her in my mind. She said _"Tell the Olympians that I feel a power stirring. A power I have not felt in many years."_ I looked at her and thought _"They will never believe me Grand Mother."_ She took a ring and touched it to mine and then she removed it and placed it on a chain which she then put around my neck. After making sure it was secure Oceanus pressed a small leather pouch and some round coins into my hand he said "Remember when the time comes that true names hold true power." Tythes nodded vigorously and then she thought _"When you return to your friends touch each of their rings and then give it to Annabeth it will allow her to call on the sea in a time of need."_ I could feel the poison in my veins moving again and Oceanus said "We are bound by the same powers as the gods. We can not interfere directly so you will have to heal yourself under your own power." So with a slight push up as if I was a beach ball I was gone and then I was falling towards the river and I hit with an _Fwwaaa-ooooouuum!_ and a whiteout of bubbles.

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I sank towards the bottom of the river and it was disgusting. The bottom of the river was layered with decades of trash and litter, and in the water floated even more litter. Then I realized that I was fine the water had purged the venom from my veins and had healed the wounds leaving no scars.

Then I also realized that I was thigh deep in mud and I was completely dry and I was breathing under water. I looked around and grabbed a soggy wrapper it became completely dry so I grabbed a lighter that was floating by and with a click and a crackle a piece of paper burned on the bottom of the Mississippi River. I let them both go and the flame went out instantly. A huge boat like one of the old fashioned river boats went by its paddle churned and stirred up the silt. After it settled I saw the hilt of my sword and then I heard a voice I looked around and there she was. She was colorless like the water and seemed to be very sick. I said "Mom?"

She smiled sadly because she looked just like her and said _"No Percy Jackson I am not your mother I am a Nereid an Ocean Spirit and I was sent by your father to deliver a message. I must act quickly the Naiads cannot support me in this foul river for long. Although your mothers' fate is not as hopeless as it would seem."_ Then I remembered about Oceanus and Tythes.

I said "Hold on just a sec," then I called out "Mississippi I need to speak with you!" I waited and waited and finally said "You loathsome cockroach! Get your foul polluted little carcass out here, and you call this a river! I've been to the Nile and this is nothing in comparison!" A boiling current came at me but I let loose a blast of cold and it chilled. Then I man with long grimy hair and a tangled beard materialized. He was wearing robes made of food wrappers and his armor was made of old used pens that the casings had been woven together. He looked nasty and he said "Just who do you thank you are do you want to drowned?" Then he took another look at me and said "You're a son of Poseidon aren't you?"

"Yes and I have a gift from your father Oceanus." I handed him the small sack full of the little coins he gave me.

The river god reached in and took one out. That's when I noticed that they were sand dollars. He took about five of them and broke them a blast of seawater echoed out and went up and down the river and before my eyes every piece of filth dissolved into silt and then the silt disappeared leaving the hard rocky bottom of the river and adding another twenty feet of depth to the river. He looked rejuvenated and his clothes and armor were brand new and soft silk and shiny ringlets that swayed and billowed in the water. He turned to me and said "You have helped me and so this is my blessing: may the rivers invigorate you as much as the sea and may they always respond to thee, so says me, so mote it be." And then a small silver circlet appeared on my head and the Nereid looked at my crown and said _"My master bides me to tell that you are to go to the Santa Monica pier when you get to Los Angeles and that you should not trust the gifts."_ I looked around and saw the deactivated hilt of Anaklusmos. I hesitated to pick it up and she said _"Take your sword Percy your father believes in you."_ I took it and a greater strength flooded me. I turned to her and said "You said something about my father and Santa Monica?"

_"Yes your father wants you to come to Santa Monica pier and he warns that you should beware the gifts…"_ she had started to fade and so I never was able to ask her what gifts I was supposed to avoid.

I thanked my father and swam towards the surface.

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I came up and was tackled by Annabeth back into the river. After crawling back out and drying us both off I was yelled at by Annabeth she said "You idiot you should have teleported out you should have done something else besides fight the bloody Chimera!" and then she tackled me again and refused to let go for about five minutes so I walked towards Grover while having to hold Annabeth said "So what's up?"

He snorted and we headed back towards the Amtrak station so that we wouldn't miss it. We had just passed a anchor woman who told the camera that "…the survivors reported a woman who had unleashed flame thrower in the Arch and had blasted a whole in the side but that a young man who had a set of mountain climbing gear had set a line and tackled her out of the aperture saving the people trapped inside. They said that the line went taut and then was taut for about two minutes when the heat from the hot metal burned threw the rope causing the terrorist and the hero to fall into the river. The boy was reportedly the selfsame Percy Jackson of New York, New York and he is wanted in two states for questioning. Is this boy a hero or a blackmailed member of a new cult of radical terrorists?"

We hurried past and just barely made it to the Amtrak before it left. We were able to trade with an older couple who wanted to watch the landscape go by for their tickets into a sleeper cabin. We took the three bunks and went to sleep faster then Hypnos himself. When we woke up it was night time and so I told them about meeting with Tythes and Oceanus as well as the summons to Santa Monica pier.

Grover said "We can't ignore a summons from your father we should go to the pier."

"Yeah we should," said Annabeth then she continued and said "I wonder what the Titans feel stirring about down there? It can't be good if even Oceanus is worried."

I looked at her for a moment; she was cute when she was concentrating. Her forehead would furrow and she would worry her lower lip between her teeth. Then she would twirl one of her long locks of hair which she kept tied back in a pony tail. I then realized that she meant that Oceanus who had stayed peaceful during the war with Chronos was never in a mood less than jovial so this must be something big.

We ate at the bar and grabbed a six pack of root beer and headed back to the sleeper cabins.

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The next afternoon, July 7th, fourteen days before the solstice our train pulled into Denver. We had not had a bath since before catching the train to St. Louis and I was sure that was obvious.

"Lets try to contact Chiron," said Annabeth "I want to tell him about your meeting the Ocean Titans and the Nereid." I asked her how but she ignored me, so we milled around like a bunch of old cows for about half an hour though I didn't know what Annabeth was looking for but eventually she located it. It turns out she was looking for a car wash.

Now to get you up to speed here when I fell into the river I had lost most of the drachma and my clothes were still in disrepair. So I looked like I had been stuck in a rotisserie oven, Annabeth looked like she had been mugged, and Grover looked like he belonged on the streets. Anybody in their right mind would have thought we were up to no good.

"What are we doing I thought we were going to try and contact Chiron?"

"We are, we're going to use an IM."

"It's seventy-five cents," he said.

Annabeth crossed her arms and said "Don't look at me the diner car wiped me out. I have no more money."

I dug around in my pockets until I tracked down my wallet. I emptied it on to the pavement and found about two dollars on quarters and a single drachma. Handing over the money Grover stuck it in the slot and then adjusted the nozzle until a mist came out and catching the light turned into a giant rainbow. Using my influence over water I made the mist field bigger to allow for a bigger space and I said "So about this IM'ing what does it do?"

"You give an offering to Iris goddess of rainbows and if she accepts your offering then she will connect you to whom ever you seek," said Annabeth.

She through the drachma into the mist and said "Goddess, accept our offering." It shimmered and disappeared in a golden haze and Annabeth then said "Half-Blood Hill."

Before us was the strawberry fields and in the distance you could hear the waves of Long Island Sound. We where at the Big House and leaning against the rail holding a sword and looking deep into the forest was a man with sandy blonde hair, very short shorts, and a orange tank top that said _CAMP HALF-BLOOD_.

"Luke!" I said, he turned wide eyed and I swear he was standing right in front of us through a screen of mist.

"Percy," he said "and Annabeth, thank the Gods. Is Grover there?"

"Yeah, I'm right here Luke." Grover moved the nozzle so that he could see Luke.

"Uh…We're …uh …we're fine." Annabeth stammered and was madly straightening her dirty clothes and combing her hair with her fingers.

"We wanted to speak to Chiron." I interrupted to save Annabeth the trouble.

Luke looked down guiltily and said "He's down by the cabins we have had some more problems here at camp," his face turned ashen and he continued "There was another attack about five of the unclaimed lost their lives and several of the cabins were damaged in the attack." We were all quiet and Annabeth's face turned stony.

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Luke explained to us what had happened. The investigation that Argus was leading showed that a Basilisk had gotten into camp and had started to attack any and everything that moved. The unclaimed that had died had been new arrivals that did not know that they should have worn something like sunglasses so that they would only be petrified and not killed on sight. The cabins that had been damaged had received structural damage so they were rebuilding all the cabins. The basilisk had finally been killed by Mr. D for knocking over his Diet Coke of all things.

About the time Luke finished his narration a Hummer one of the originals pulled in. It was red with flames and ghost smoke on it. The rims where spinners and the subwoofers were blasting the bass so loud that it was causing the mist to swirl.

"Anyway Chiron had to-" Luke jammed his hands over his ears and yelled "what is that noise?"

"I'll get it!" yelled Annabeth. She looked relieved to have an excuse to leave, "Come on Grover!"

"What? But… I thought-"

"Give Percy the nozzle and lets _GO!_" ordered Annabeth.

Grover muttered something about girls being harder to read then the Oracle of Delphi, and more confusing than the Wheel of Wye. He handed me the spray gun and adjusting the nozzle and focusing on the water I was able to project myself to Luke.

One look around camp and I knew that the enemy we were dealing with was more powerful then I had originally thought. Luke looked at me strangely at first but he continued "Chiron had to break up a fight." He explained "Things are extremely tense here, Percy. Somehow word leaked out about the whole Zeus-Poseidon stand-off and the cabins are choosing sides. It was probably the same one who killed the younglings and summoned the hellhound and the basilisk. But the sides are shaping up just like in the Trojan War. Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are supporting Poseidon. Demeter, Athena, Dionysus, and the majority of my cabin supporting Zeus."

"Why?"

"About two thirds of the campers in my cabin are unclaimed. They feel that if they support the king on the gods that they will have warranted the right to be claimed."

"Oh, well can't blame that can I?"

"No you can't, well we can't help you much from here but Hades had to be the one to take the master bolt."

"But gods can not take another's symbol of power."

"Directly no but he has the Helm of Darkness. Who else could sneak in, nab the Bolt and be gone with out them noticing… You'd have to be invisible!" exclaimed Luke knocking over a potted plant.

We stopped talking and then Luke seemed to realize what he had said and then he amended saying "It wasn't Annabeth. It couldn't have been Annabeth. I've known her forever she's like a little sister to me!"

I wasn't so sure Annabeth would like that description the music that had been coming from the stall next to us in the car wash stopped abruptly and then me and Luke heard a man scream in terror and the sound of squealing tires as he pealed out of the stall.

"You had better go and make sure that they didn't do anything rash," Luke murmured. He looked at me strangely and said "Listen, those flying shoes are you wearing them? Do they fit right? I would feel better knowing that they are being put to good use."

I tried not to look and sound like a guilty liar while I said "Yeah! I have they've come in real handy."

"Really! Your not just saying that?"

"No really! They came in handy when we fought Medusa."

"And they fit and all that?"

"Perfectly."

The machine started beeping like an annoying alarm clock in the back of my head and as the mist faded so did my form. Leaving with a parting good-bye and promising to protect Annabeth I left. As the mist faded and my form solidified Luke said "Tell Grover it won't be like last time nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just-"

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We left the car wash and looked around for some food because the stores we had gotten from Medusa had run out over four days ago and the trains' food had been meager at best and so we had been hungry for some time.

We found a small diner and went in and sat down waiting on the waitress. She came up to the table. She was about thirty-five and had on about five pounds of makeup. She raised her eyebrow and sneered at us saying "Well what'll it be there hot stuff?"

"We would like to order." I said just as condescendingly.

"You have the money to pay for it?"

Grover's lip started quivering and I was worried that he would start bleating or worse eat the linoleum and Annabeth looked like she was about to pass out from hunger. About that time a motorcycle the size of a small hippo pulled into the parking lot. It was black with lots of chrome and the seat was white leather except that it looked to me made from Caucasian human skin. A hot breeze blew through the diner and a man about six foot tall and three feet wide walked in the door his hair was short and spiked and he was wearing a huge leather jacket a pair of tight pants that must have made his voice a few octaves higher when he sat down, a pair of black cowboy boots and a matching hat, along with a red muscle shirt. His sunglasses were so dark that you could not see what lay behind them. He had a brutish face that I thought looked familiar and with his presence I felt the need to uncap Riptide and tear everyone to pieces but by using my power to make myself colder I felt the effects lessen.

The man sat at our booth which was to small for him and caused Annabeth to be crowded against the window and with a snap of his fingers the waitress blinked and asked again if we had money to pay the man said in a voice that was of a soft timbre that lulled people in to a false sense of security "It's on me." She stood there and he whipped out a knife and flicked it burying its point into the table snarling "What? Are you still here?"

He pointed at the waitress who turned like she had been spun around and scuttled away to place our order. The man looked at me and bad feeling started coursing though my veins. Anger, resentment, bitterness, cynicism. I felt like laughing at the worlds pathetic attempts to evolve into a better species and then tear it all down to watch them scurry like so many cockroaches after the light comes on trying to rebuild their barriers their oh so precious ideals. And then _'Fire and Ash coated everything and the grisly sight of bodies that had been shredded and torn by blades lay in droves upon the ground a city that was once recognizable as New York was shattered and the only building that remained was the Empire State building. There stood a figure tall with hair like starlight and pale skin with pale armor. His sword rippled like water and before him was a being just as tall with black holes for eyes and long white hair with a matching beard. His skin was whiter that a sheet in the moonlight and his body was crisscrossed with multitudes of scars and he wore a silver robe with a royal purple and gold chiton draped over one shoulder and in his hand was a scythe the blade seemed at war with itself and the it flickered with a pale lavender light.'_- I was back in the room and the man was grinning at me his features looked younger about Luke's age but still with a hard bitter cast to it. He said "So your old Seaweeds kid."

It was more of a fact than a statement but still I felt like I was looking at a teenage version of Gabe and said "Yes, what's it to you?"

Annabeth gripped my arm so tight it was like her hand had become a vice she said "Percy this is-"

Biker boy raised his arm and said "Its cool just so long as we don't forget who's boss. You know who I am little cousin?"

Then I recognized the sneer and said "Ares, god of war, to what do we owe this pleasure?"

"I was in the area and thought I'd visit. Heard you broke Clarisse's spear?"

"She had it coming, besides in the absence of elder god children she has overestimated her strength."

"Probably, but I don't fight my kids battles. As to why I'm here? Like I said heard you were in town was in the neighborhood and I have a proposition for you."

The waitress came back with heaping trays of food and after they had been set down. Ares tossed her a few gold drachmas. The waitress looked at the gold coins nervously and said "We can't accept these there not…"

Ares ran his thumb over the knife blade and turning to look at her said "Problem sweetheart?" His tone was threatening and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Annabeth started indignantly and said "You can't do that threatening people with knives and treating thee-emm… like…mortals." She had trailed off at the end after she realized what she was saying.

"Are you kidding I love this country best place since Sparta! Don't you carry a weapon, punk? You should it's a bug eat bug world out there someone could get hurt. Which brings me to my proposition, I need you to do me a favor."

"And what could we do for a god?" I said sarcastically.

"Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. It's no problem I was on a date with my main squeeze and we were interrupted. I left my shield and I want you to go get it." I had tried to hold off the full force of Ares' power but had not been able to and the following is the result.

"Why don't you get it yourself!"

He had pulled of his sun glasses and his eye sockets were filled with mini nuclear explosions. And at my declaration the fire burned hotter in his eyes.

"Why don't I turn you into a squirrel and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it. A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson? Will you prove yourself a coward?" He leaned forward "Or maybe you only fight when you have a river to jump into. So you can run to daddy?"

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Percy was so mad that his aura had been fully released and even Ares started to look a little nervous as hoarfrost reached across the table and coated his cloths.

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In the corner of the room a man watched with measured disinterest. He had seen enough to help the sisters. They would not like this and neither would the Elders. He disappeared in a swirl of blue-ish white light. He would watch the three some more so that he could prove to both the sisters and the three kids who each other was. Nobody noticed as the White Lighter left or even that he was there.

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I wanted to slice Ares into little slivers of quivering flesh, but I knew Ares was causing my rage and so I resisted not giving him the satisfaction.

I said "We're not interested, we already have a quest."

He looked in my eyes and Ares made me see things I didn't want to- blood, and flame, and black smoke; bodies contorted and hewn into gruesome sculptures of war. "I know all about you quest and when that _item_ was stolen Zeus sent the best to find it. Apollo, Artemis, Athena, and of course yours truly. If I couldn't find a weapon of such power…" Ares liked his lips as if the thought of the bolt was an aphrodisiac. "Well, if I couldn't find it then you never will. However, I am trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. After all me and your dad go way back. After all I suggested to him that ol' Corpse Breath was behind it all."

"You told him it was Hades?" said Annabeth

"Yeah, best way to start a war is by framing someone else. Oldest trick in the book; Hades steals the bolt and probably insinuated that it was Poseidon that took it. Yup recognized it right off the bat, in a way… you have me to thank for this quest."

"Thanks." Grover mumbled around a piece of cherry cobbler.

"Hey, I'm a generous guy. Tell you what! You help me and I'll arrange transport west help you on your journey. Maybe I'll tell you something you need to know, about your mom?" Ares grinned maliciously as I started.

"You know something about my mom?"

"That got your attention. See Annabeth, everybody has a price even for something he hopes never to sell. The water park is a mile north of here, on De Boise Street. Look for the Tunnel of Love."

"What interrupted you two?" I asked "Something scare you off?"

Ares growled at me giving me a look of death. But I had seen this look before on Clarisse it was a look that was trying to hide something. Ares had looked nervous for a minute.

"Your lucky, punk, that it was me and not one of the other Olympians. They aren't as forgiving of rudeness as I. I'll meet you back here don't disappoint me."

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After Ares had left Grover started shaking like a leaf and said 'Not good Percy, not good at all. A god sought you out."

I stared at the window did Ares really know something about my mom or was he just using the knowledge of my mom as leverage.

Annabeth touched my arm and said "Are you ok Percy?" I looked at her and she had a look of genuine concern about her countenance. I smiled feebly and said "We should go."

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We were standing outside a condemned water park and I said "Hey Annabeth you want to go on a date?"

"Yeah sure where you taken me?"

"Oh, this sweet park called Water Land."

"Cool!"

Grover grinned at the banter and said "So what do you think Ares wants us for?"

Annabeth frowned for a little bit and said "Maybe it requires brains, Ares has strength but that's all he has. Even strength must bow to wisdom."

"But this park scared Ares. What is bad enough to scare a War God?"

"I don't know, but I think we'll have to find out." I said.

I phased through the bars by turning to mist and Grover flew over them leaving Annabeth on the other side. She sighed in frustration and said "Have either one of you heard of courtesy?" She started to climb the gate I had turned and grabbing her ankle teleported her through. I turned and looked around at the water park and said "If this is were Ares brings his dates I feel sorry for his girlfriend."

Annabeth frowned and said "Be more respectful Percy!"

"Why I thought you hated Ares?"

"I do but his girlfriend is a little temperamental."

"Who is it Echidna?"

"No, it's Aphrodite."

"Oh."

Grover nodded his head dreamily and said "Yeah, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love."

I thought for a minute and said "Wait, hold on just a sec, isn't she married to someone…" I snapped my fingers a few times the name was right on the tip of my tongue. "It's Hepburn…,no um, Heppner…, ah ha Hephaestus!"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"Oh." I felt the need to change the subject. About that time we came up to a gift shop slash mall of sorts and Annabeth looked down at her clothes and then at mine and Grover's and said "Please."

"No we aren't stealing from them their mortals!"

"But-"

"No!"

She pouted. I hate it when she pouts because then I can't say no. Her bottom lip stuck out and quivered and her eyes got all big and watery and she said "Pwease!"

"Oh alright," I muttered dejectedly. "But after this we are using spare changes of clothes!"

"Ok." She said brightly, it disgusted me. I used to never be this weak with a girl but she had me wrapped around her finger tighter than yarn on a ball.

She came out of the building with big black shorts, that she had cinched around her slim fourteen inch waist, a small black tank-top and black earrings that looked to be made of hematite. The black offset her pearlescent hair and tan skin. I switched into some gray basketball shorts a black T-shirt and a silvery Hawaiian print shirt that had black floral prints on it. Gray sandals completed the look. Grover had gotten black shorts and a pink shirt with a brand new Rasta Cap to match.

We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. We had already passed the Ankle-Biter Island, Head over Wedgie, and the Dude, where's my Shorts. No monsters, no sound, nothing.

To break the tension I said "So Ares and Aphrodite, they have a thing going?"

"That's old gossip Percy about three thousand years old to be exact."

"What about Aphrodite's husband?"

"Well," said Annabeth "You see Hephaestus the blacksmith. He was thrown off of Mt. Olympus by Hera because he was born crippled, so he isn't exactly what you would call handsome. He has a brilliant mind and is clever with his hands but Aphrodite's not into that sort of thing."

"She likes bikers."

"Yeah something like that."

"And Hephaestus knows?"

"That's the sad part, he caught them once. Literally, he caught them in a golden net. And then he invited all the gods to come laugh at them. What the myths don't say is that after that he refused to let Ares in his houses, temples, etc. etc. but he also told Aphrodite to shove it. He started to take residence in his forges and only comes to Olympus when a summit is in place. But ever since then he has made it a point to embarrass them. He always setting traps, that's why they; Ares and Aphrodite come to these out of the way places so that they won't get caught. Places like…"

"That." Said Grover pointed in front of us. It was a large mountain like structure the entrance was at the top it looked like a big tub at the top that spiraled into a tunnel that twisted and turned through the mountain to end in a large basin at the bottom. Around the rim of the entrance and exit pools were statues of little cupids. But the ride was empty of water and the sign over the pool said: THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: NOT YOUR PARENT'S TUNNEL OF LOVE!

Grover leaned over the edge and said "Guys' look!"

Stranded about half way down the spiral was a boat for four that had been refitted with a physiatrist coach. It was all red silk with tassels and lace. It had a red and white paint job and a pink canopy. Inside was an old fashioned shield with a boar's head embossed on it in gold. And wrapped around it was a pink scarf.

"This is too easy," I said "So we just crawl down there and get it?"

Annabeth ran her finger over the base of the nearest cupid and said "There's a Greek symbol here. ETA. I wonder…"

"Grover," I called over my shoulder "You smell any monsters?"

He sniffed at the wind and said "Nothing."

"Nothing, as in at-the-Arch-and-I-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"

"I told you that was underground. And all underground places smell like monsters I just dismissed it." Said Grover looking hurt.

"Your right, I'm sorry." I looked around and taking a deep breath said "I'm going down there."

"I'll go with you!" said Grover.

I thought he was trying to make up for the Arch business and so I turned and said "No, I want you and your flying shoes up here incase something goes wrong for backup. Your Red Baron, a flying ace, remember?"

"Sure," said Grover he looked relieved "but what could go wrong?"

"I don't know, I just have a hunch. Annabeth your wi-"

"No! Are you kidding! Go with you on the Thrill Ride of Love?"

"Yes, what's the big deal?"

She looked as if I had fallen from the moon and killed her puppy. Her cheeks were a faint pink and her eyes all watery. "But it's so embarrassing! What if someone saw me!"

"Who's going to see you! You know what never mind I'll do it myself!" I slid down the side of the pool and grabbed the monorail that the boat road on till it reached the tunnel. But when I got up Annabeth was there and looking it over, mutter about how she didn't want a boy to mess things up. I looked around the pool again and notice that the rim was covered in mirrors and then it clicked. The reason Ares and Aphrodite had chosen this spot was so that while they were making out they could look at their favorite things: themselves.

I reached in and picked up the scarf from the shield. It was a pale mauve color and smelled like roses and vanilla. I smiled a little at the smell and then Annabeth ripped it from my hands and said "No love magic for you!"

"What?"

"Just get the shield Seaweed Breath, and lets get out of here."  
The moment I touched the shield I knew we were in trouble. My hand had broken through a cobweb or something that was attached to the dash of the boat. I looked at the filament of the web and noticed that it was a supremely fine wire. Then I heard grinding like a thousand gears were starting to turn the cupids rotated and fired there arrows at each other the cords that stretched after the arrows went taught and then they started to weave onto a spiders' web.

"We have to get out." I said as calmly as possible.

"Duh." I grabbed the shield and we ran Grover tried to reach us but any time he would reach through the cables they would start to wrap around his arms.

We had nearly reached the rim when the mirrors split and dozens of mechanical spiders their gears whirling and grinding poured out. Annabeth screamed at the top of her lungs and turned tail back to the boat. I reached the boat about five seconds before the spiders and then the cupid heads popped open and revealed that the eyes were little cameras.

"Hephaestus!" Annabeth yelled "Eta is H! He set this up to capture his wife and Ares! And this is all about to be broadcasted to Olympus! And we look like idiots!"

By then the spiders were crawling over the sides of the boat and Annabeth was kicking at them like a little girl. I had told Grover to turn on the ride but no success yet so I looked and found the pipes that let water into the ride and concentrating with all my might I willed the water to burst the pipes. I strained for a minute and then there was a tug in my lower belly like I was about to ejaculate and then the water came flowing out of the ports and the boat was swept down into the tunnel. Annabeth was choking me to death by suffocating hug while screaming in my ear and I was trying to keep the boat from capsizing.

It would have been pitch dark but for the thousands of shorting spiders in the water. The tunnel of love was going smoothly at first until we reached the first curve then it was like a roller coaster. We dropped twenty feet and screamed all the way down. After that we went up and down like a wave system and round and round and then we shot straight up like a rocket and then leveled off only to go into a corkscrew to the bottom. I could see light and by now Annabeth had calmed down some through the entire thing Annabeth had clutched me with a death grip. We exited and ended in the pool slowly floating to a stop. We were both soaked and Annabeth's nipples were visible as two points on her shirt because the water had been very, very cold. At least to her. I turned to look at Annabeth whose hair was frizzed and loose tendrils of her curls were sticking out. She looked a little woozy and I said "You alright?"

"Just get me down before I ruin the upholstery." She groaned.

After Annabeth and I had caught our breath and Grover had flown over I noticed that the cupids had swiveled towards us and were still filming I walked over and said "And so ends this episode of Half-Blood Humor. I wish we had more time but that's all there is there isn't any more. Tune in next week to watch Clarisse make out with a Pegasii!" The camera's stopped filming and returned to their original posts.

Annabeth had gotten up off the ground where she had fallen and said "I hate thrill rides! I hate being framed! And I hate, I Hate, I HATE SPIDERS!" Grover had been unlucky enough to be flying over head at the time when Annabeth had finished her statement she had let loose with an electrical blast of energy that caught Grover in the stomach knocking the air out of him and causing him to spiral out of control.

He went down screaming "Mayday! Mayday!" He crash landed into a photo board and his head went through the hole for Noo-Noo the Whale. Annabeth stared with a look of horror and I just stared dumbfounded when I heard and "Ooooouuch!"

We got Grover free and started to head for the exit. I was walking fast and Grover and even Annabeth was hard pressed to keep up. I couldn't help but think about the show we had just put on and wondered if Olympus had gone to commercial and if our ratings were any good.

I hated being teased. I hated being tricked. And I had plenty of experience handling those who did such things. I hefted the shield on my arm and said darkly "We need to have a talk with Ares."

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"You are kidding right? I mean the Greek Gods and Goddesses-" Piper as the eldest of the Halliwell sisters was five eight with long chocolate hair, a tiny waist of around eighteen inches and a C cup she was still the bomb shell she was when she graduated from High School.

"You know Leo maybe you've spent too much time up There." Phoebe was similar in her build she and her sisters were all of a slight built but it belittled the strength and power they possessed.

Phoebe and Piper had been sitting in the sunroom of the manor when Leo orbed in.

"Listen the hierarchy of Good Magic is complicated. To understand this you have to understand that the gods are tied to the ideology of western civilization or the flame of the west. It is the power base of the gods it is the thought that all things can be bettered the power of higher thinking. It started in Greece, it moved to Rome, form there it was in Germany, France, Spain, the gods spent centuries in Britain then they moved to America. Now Good Magic started with the first being, in the beginning of that was Chaos, then she had her to kids Light and Matter, then they had the elemental gods like Gaia and Ouranous, Gaia and Ouranous had the Titans like Chronos and Rhia who had the Greek Gods and Goddesses. After Zeus had stabilized the Pantheon and had apologized to the titan Cratus for sparing the life of a child that he had demanded be killed which eventually became a goddess and then help Cratus to become a titan again (he was stripped of his godhood) then they defeated Chronos again after he used the primordial gods Noir and Azura to try and end the world again. After that Zeus and the other gods decided that it would be best if those that had lived as mortal governed the supernatural aspects of mortal life hence the Elders and the White Lighters. They govern the mortal magical races."

By this time Paige had joined them. At five ten she was the tallest of the sisters and the youngest. She had turned to her original color of black and her pale skin shimmered with the light of her angelic half much the same way Leo always seemed to glow a golden color, her big black eyes twinkled merrily listening to Leo explain the hierarchy to her sisters.

"But what about Demons and the Source who do they serve if we serve the gods? And I thought we destroyed Chronos" asked Phoebe.

Here Leo's face darkened with disgust. "No you destroyed some demons that had become so powerful they thought themselves the Titans reborn. As for The Source he serves the High Lords of the Dark but they serve the Dark Lord as in the most powerful dark being to exist. They serve Chronos… or rather they serve the pieces of Chronos they will be the first to join his aid if he rises again."

"Oh."

"Yeah, Oh. That is why you will have to have to eventually move the manor to the east coast. Because the center of the Titans power is on Mount Othyrs which is on Mount Tam, that and the Elders believe that the magical world is shifting is at war with itself something happened between the Elder Gods and it would be best if you moved to the East were our magic," here Leo grimaced as he remembered that he was an Elder "My magic is strongest."

"Okay Leo but let us think about this." Piper was still upset especially this week it had been a year to the day since hers and Leo's son Wyatt had been killed. He had only been five. The Elder known as Gideon had disclosed to Leo and Piper his fears that so much power in one being was terrifying especially in a mortal. Leo and Piper had done their best to ally his fears and so Gideon had done his best to protect Wyatt from the demons but Magic School had been over run by them and Wyatt had been killed by the Source who was once the demon Barbus himself hoping to absorb the child's powers. Instead the Elders had taken Wyatt's powers and divided them out among the Sisters.

Piper had gotten the power to orb, heal, and generate lightning like the Elders. Phoebe got the powers to generate a force field, conjure, telekinesis, and orb as well. Paige got the power to command Excalibur, levitate, and conjuring.

The death of his son had enraged Leo until he found that there was an upheaval with not only the evil side but that the Elders were nervous about something to do with the Elder Gods. So while the sisters thought about the pros and cons of moving east of what their new purpose was and if they were ready. Leo orbed up to the Elders palace on Olympus. While in transit he thought about his wife and her sisters. They had vanquished many demons since Barbus had taken over magic school and this had made the Source madder than ever and was constantly assailing the house with the sisters fears but Leo and with the now unemployed so to speak Elder Gideon and the former demon slash immortal slash avatar slash made good guy with his powers from immortality Cole Turner it was turning into a full house.

Cole had already moved east, he had found rumors of some land in the Halliwell name through the job he had at a very successful law firm in New York City. He usually 'fade' teleported from his office after the end of the work day. Gideon had also found a job in New York City as a professor of Latin and consultant for the Museum of Natural Art and Science on dead languages.

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When Leo got to the Palace of the Elders he changed into his robes and other attire his true form came through as a human of nearly ninety years. He walked in and the Elder Odin said "Leo, its about time you made an appearance."

"I'm sorry Odin but my family comes first we have already established that."

"Yes, yes, now as for the Charmed Ones are they ready for their new destiny? They will be introduced to the mainstream of our world. They will interact with the children of our bosses will this be a problem or should we choose others?"

"Piper and her sisters are trying to decide on what to do you must give them time."

"We don't have time to wait on mortals!" said Odin

Before Leo could respond another Elder named Elyria said in a soft quivering voice that reminded Leo if ripples in water "Odin! Enough! We must wait, we must give them time. This is the anniversary of the death of Leo and Piper's son. You have lived up here to long Odin. You have lost touch with the mortals you govern!"

"I have not!"

"You have! And the sad thing is you don't care. The lives of mortals, the affairs of mortal lives have, has no effect on you because you have lost touch with what makes you human. You are no Elder you are an Overlord that cares nothing for his subjects just that they do as you command. Perhaps you should meditate and find just what it is you hate about mortals and deal with it!"

Elyria stormed out of the room and Odin had a look of contemplative shock on his face. Leo had bitten his tongue so that he wouldn't laugh as Odin's face went from red with anger to white with shame.

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When Leo returned with more information about whom the kids were that he had watched and what there task was he was slightly ashen faced about facing Piper again.

Piper entered the kitchen she had been depressed all day. The thought of what had happened a year ago had nearly crippled her with grief but she had accepted her portion of her sons' powers and had sought to master them. She and her sisters had mastered their powers within a month and had gone after every demon sent their way with a vengeance the night club was doing well and so she had decided that she would sell and purchase a new place in New York City. Phoebe had talked to Elise and had found that there was a sister paper in NYC called the Harbor Mirror that was willing to except her column first rate and at her going pay. Paige had started to look for a job a month ago when Leo first mentioned them moving east when Leo told her that she would be hired and paid to teach magic to the demigods at Camp Half-Blood.

Leo orbed into the parlor of the manor and after pausing briefly to sense for Piper headed for the kitchen. She was standing at the island and from the sound of it she was chopping veggies for dinner. He circled around her and hugged her from behind. After nearly eight years of knowing each other and with Pipers new calling to be a White Lighter as well as a charmed one she could sense things as well. So she was prepared for Leo to come in.

They stood in silence for a few minutes when Piper started to cry. The tears were slow at first but the longer she cried the harder she sobbed until even Leo was crying softly.

Piper turned in Leo's arms and laid her head against his chest and with a voice filled with utter hate and anguish said "I… I can't help but feel angry with myself as if there was something I could have done to save him but there was nothing and there was no time Barbus just vanquished him like that and there was nothing we could do Leo! Our son dead! I swear if I ever see Barbus again I will kill him myself and then I'll bring him back so we can vanquish his demonic hide forever!" She had yelled and screamed the last part until with a wave of her hand lightning flew, things spontaneously exploded and with another wave of her hand it all stopped frozen in time from moving forward.

Phoebe and Paige had been in the dining room they came in and hugged Piper. Leo knew that some thing could only be dealt with, with some help. The sisters had always had a bond that allowed them to share each others hurts and fears to the extent that they were more one person then three. Standing there Leo could see more clearly then ever just how powerful the three of them were.

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They had moved into the parlor and were sitting there in silence when Piper said "So what did the other Elders have to say about our new destiny and charges?"

"Well it seems that your new charges are two demigods and a satyr. One is a daughter of the goddess of warfare and wisdom Athena her name is Annabeth, and the satyr is a being that will be reborn his name is Grover but still… And the last one…"

"The last one?"

"The last one is a son of the big three the elder brother gods he is a son of Poseidon his name is Percy Hallowell-Jackson. He's your cousin to the sixth degree. Apparently a cousin had a son with no powers and so she changed his name to Hallowell and when he came of age in the late eighteen hundreds he moved north made a name for himself as a Jackson and then four generations later his great, great grandson squandered all of the family fortune."

"Oh." Piper and Paige had done research as to who the pantheon gods were and who the big three were and had learned everything they needed to about the gods and goddesses. But also now they knew about a cousin that they didn't known they had.

"So when do we start?"

"As soon as possible. They can't accept a lot of help because they are on a quest but yours and the destiny of Percy are intertwined I don't now how though."

So over the next few days they got their affairs in order and had sold the club, transferred Phoebe to the east coast, and Paige had already gone over staying with a friend until they could find a way to move the manor magically to Percy's ancestral home. Piper stayed behind with Leo trying to find a place and way to help Percy and his friends so that he would trust them to help him if he needed it.

It wasn't until three days after Leo had done his scouting that he sensed that they were in danger so grabbing Piper he orbed them into the center of Las Vegas.

**Review so that I know what you think and give me ideas I want to deviate from the srict plotline I've been following but I need some good ideas people. Flames will be used to burn offerings to Hades.**


	4. The Underworld oh Joy!

**Ok to answer some questions real quick. Percy's intellect is that he doesn't depend on everyone else to figure stuff out, He can draw and do architecture and mechanical design because just like in real life just because someone is you parent doesn't mean that you have a lot in common with them. And besides who's to say that Percy's mom isn't descended from another god or goddess. The ability to change the cabin is a power given to the appointed leader of the cabin so any half blood that was leader could change it and if that half blood was voted out then they would lose the power. They are both fifteen because it is hard to write a romantic relationship between young children, and I thought they were to young in cannon. They don't age because of the rings they stop ageing and the exact second they put the ring on is stretched to encompass the whole time with the ring and so in the end they will have aged mentally but not physically. Lightsabers work like they do in Star Wars except the blades are celestial bronze in energy form. They are different Doddses that are attacked and yes she can scream because she is a monster. And yes Percy has long hair.**

**The reason I did not up date is because my muse left me for another and know goddesses of the arts have returned to me.**

Chapter 4

The Underworld Oh Joy!

We got back to the diner and there was Ares sitting on a wrought iron bench out front by his bike. He smiled at us cruelly and said "Well, well, well, you didn't get yourself killed."

"You knew didn't you? You knew it was a trap!" I whispered with a cold edge.

"Bet that crippled Blacksmith never saw it comin' probably shocked the toga right off him! Surprise of the decade for Ol' Iron Pants! HA! Looks to capture a couple of gods gets two stupid kids instead!" He was laughing manically by the last sentence.

I flung the shield at him "You Jerk. You vile, foul, loathsome, little cockroach, you should be squished like your other roach-y brethren!"

Annabeth and Grover looked at me and then Ares fearful of what he might do but instead he caught the shield and tossed it into the air like a piece of pizza dough. It started to ripple and change form into a bullet proof vest which he then slung across his back.

He then pointed at an eighteen wheeler and said "See that truck over there?"

I looked where he was pointing which had a pink rig and a reverse print white on black trailer which was good for my dyslexia the trailer said KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE ANIMALS! I looked at him, he was smiling maliciously. I said "You've got to be kidding me."

Ares snapped his fingers and the doors of the trailer opened with a groan. "Free ride West punk, so stop complaining! Oh! Before I forget here's something for the job." He threw a blue nylon sack at me.

Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, one hundred bucks in cash, pouch full of drachmas, and two bags of Double Stuffed Oreos and another bag of Twizzler Pull-n-Peels made from black licorice.

I said "I don't want your lousy-"

Grover interrupted me giving me his best red-alert warning look and bowing to Ares said "Thank you, Lord Ares."

I gritted my teeth. It was an insult to deny a god his gifts but I didn't want anything Ares had touched. I stuffed the backpack into my satchel and tried to calm down. I knew my anger was being caused by the gods' aura but I still wanted to turn him into a god-sickle. He reminded me of every bully I had ever met, Nancy Bobofit, Clarisse, Gabe, all of the sarcastic teachers and jerks who had made fun of me after I had been expelled.

I looked back at the diner which only had a few patrons now and saw the hostess who had seated us. She was a kind grandma sort and I know she had seen everything that had happened in the diner. She was watching nervously out the window like she was afraid Ares might hurt us or something and in all actuality he might have. She dragged the fry cook out of the kitchen and said something to him. He nodded and she picked up a digital camera from her podium and took our picture.

'_Great,'_ I thought _'We'll make the papers again tomorrow!'_

I imagined the headline: FIFTEEN YEAR OLD AND ACCOMPLICES BEAT UP DEFENSELESS BIKER!

"You owe me one more thing," I said recalling what he had said about my mom "You owe me information about my mother."

"Sure," he kick started his bike and yelled over the motor "She's not dead!"

"What!" I yelled back

"She was turned into light right?"

"Yeah!"

"That's metamorphosis, she is some ones prisoner!"

"But why?"

"You really need to study war fare. Hostages, you take somebody to control somebody else!"

"Nobody controls me!"

"Oh yeah?" he laughed.

I balled my fists "Your pretty smug for a god who's afraid of cupid statues, Lord Ares!"

Fire glowed from behind his glasses and I felt a hot wind blow over my scalp even though I had a thick head of long hair. "We'll meet again, Perseus Jackson. Next time you're in a fight watch your back!"

He revved his Harley and drove down the street.

Grover had been staring at me like I was crazy for what I had said to Ares when he noticed that the drivers for the truck were coming out of the diner.

We scrambled in and closed the trailer doors behind us. After we had hunkered down Annabeth turned to me and said "That was not smart, Percy."

"I don't care."

"You don't want a god as an enemy, especially that god."

I nodded to let her know that I understood.

We had been on the road for about ten minutes when Grover said sleepily "I still can't believe you said those things Percy."

I turned towards him and said "As Jean-Marie Poupart said 'Only the truth can still astonish people' I spoke the truth."

Grover chuckled and went right to sleep.

Annabeth and I had finally adjusted to our surroundings and the first thing I noticed was the smell. It smelled like a giant litter box complete with cat. Because when I had activated Anaklusmos on its lowest setting it revealed the contents of the trailer under its faint pearlescent light.

The contents of the trailer were several bails of moldering hay, a row of cages and a large cage fencing off the last fifteen feet of the forty foot trailer. In three of the smaller cages were an antelope, a zebra, a male albino lion, and in the largest cage a large male African Elephant. The elephant gazed out mournfully his trunk wrapped around the bars of his cage.

The Elephant was the only animal that seemed to have been given the right food because both the zebra and the antelope had a Styrofoam tray of ground hamburger meat and the lion had a large sack of turnips.

After we had switched the foods and given each animal the proper feed we set about making them comfortable. The antelope had a silver balloon tied to its horns that said OVER THE HILL, the lion and the zebra's mane were matted with chewing gum as if someone had been spitting on them in their spare time. As for the elephant its rear legs were chained to the wall and it looked down right miserable.

Using Annabeth's knife we cut the lion's mane after we woke Grover and told him to tell the lion to sit still so we could. After shaving it off short and giving the lion some water it settled down. Then we moved on to the zebra and as we got ready to cut his mane I heard a panicky voice in my head _'Don't sacrifice me Lord! Please I beg of you!'_

I looked around and then I looked at Annabeth "Why did you call me your Lord?"

"Oh, _Pleeaase _as if I would ever call you that-"

'_My Lord?'_

I looked at the zebra and said "You?" it nodded its' head as if to say 'Duh!' I looked back at Grover and said "Why can I hear Stripes over he-"

A deeper voice one that rumbled through my head said _'Don't forget me!'_

"-and the Elephant?"

Annabeth worried her lower lip making her look supremely seductive in the skin tight black vest top which was fastened by five silver buckles revealed her cleavage and her tight belly through a three inch gap in the leather that separated the vest front and the black leather pants that Ares had given her. After a while she said "The stories say that when your dad tried to marry Amphitrite the daughter of Oceanus that she refused so he tried to create for her the proper gift. He made the horse but before he got it right he had made the dolphin, the hippo, the zebra, and the elephant. Because a god can communicate with anything he creates it means that Poseidon has blessed you above his other sons in the past."

I nodded with understanding while I explained to the zebra and the elephant that we would be helping them some. I had cut the zebra's mane and had used my power over water to freeze and shatter the locks on the elephant's legs.

Grover after going on a righteous rant about how this was cruelty to animals and that it probably wasn't even legal had gone back to sleep.

Grover had curled up on a empty turnip sack, Annabeth had opened the bag of black licorice and nibbled on a pull-n-peel half-heartedly, I tried to cheer myself up by thinking of the fact that we were halfway to LA and it was only May twenty-sixth the solstice wasn't till the fourteenth of June we would make it in plenty time.

On the other hand, I had no idea what to expect next. Because the gods kept toying with me, at least Hephaestus had been honest about it-he had put up camera's and advertised me as entertainment. But even with the camera's not rolling I could feel the quest being watched. We were a source of entertainment for the gods.

"Hey," said Annabeth "why so serious?"

"Annabeth tell me honestly how do you feel?"

"What do you mean?"

"I feel old and heavy, and yet I feel thin li…"

"Like not enough butter over too much bread. Yeah I feel it to."

"It's the rings isn't it?" she nodded sadly but then… I smacked my forehead.

"What? Percy what's wrong?" She touched my shoulder and had a look of deep concern.

"Hold out your ring." I said and reaching into my bag I got my grandmother's ring and finding Grover's I touched it to it and a flash of red came form Tythes ring, explained the situation to Annabeth and she held out her ring which I did another flash of red and I gave the ring to Annabeth who fit it on her index finger of her left hand. If glowed a pale rosy color on her hand. After a few minutes the feeling lessened and we decided that it had lightened the burden of the rings.

It was quite for a minute when she said "Hey Percy?"

"Yes Annabeth?"

"I'm sorry for freaking out back there at the water park."

"It's okay."

"It's just…" she shuddered "Spiders."

"Because of Arachne," I said "She challenged your mother to a weaving contest, right?"

"Yes and Arachne's children have sought revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there is a spider with in a mile of me it'll find me." She shivered again and she finished "That and I hate the creepy little things. Anyway I owe you."

"Naaah we're a team remember?" I said "Besides, Grover did all the fancy flying."

I thought he was asleep but he said "Yeah I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?"

She had opened an Oreo package and pulled an Oreo apart. She handed me half while she licked her half and said "In the Iris message… did Luke really say nothing?"

I looked at her sadly and said "He said he wanted his little sister back and that if Grover remained calm nobody would turn into a pine tree."

She had started to tear up and so I wrapped my arms around her and said "I am sorry Annabeth."

"Why it's not like you care!" Annabeth said piteously.

I held her closer and said "But of course I care Annabeth! Besides at any rate even if I didn't care I know about unrequited love."

"You, mister body of a god and heart of a romantic, know about unrequited love?"

"Yes I do."

"Care to elaborate?"

"No."

"Oh."

"Body of a god, huh?"

'_Smack'_

"Ow!"

"Don't brag."

"But you're the one who-"

_SMACK!_ "Don't brag!"

"Sorry."

"Better." Annabeth nuzzled into my shirtless chest. I had put on the leather pants Ares had given me but they were so tight that not only did they emphasize my package but it left little to the imagination. Grover had been given a leather skull cap with holes for his horns.

"Anyway about the pine tree thing…"

In the pearlescent light of the blade of Anaklusmos it was hard to read their expressions.

Grover let out a mournful bray and said "I should have told you the truth from the beginning but I was afraid that if you knew what a failure I was then you wouldn't want me along."

"You were the satyr who tried to save Thalia daughter of Zeus."

"Yes…"

"And the other two half-bloods that Thalia befriended, the ones who did manage to get to camp…" I turned to look at Annabeth who had gone very still. "That was you and Luke wasn't it?"

She had placed the Oreo cookie part on my abs the cream had been licked clean off. "It's like you said before Percy. A seven year old half blood couldn't have made it very far alone. Athena guided me towards help. Thalia was twelve, Luke fourteen. They had both run away from home, like me. They were happy to take me along. They were… amazing monster-fighters, even with out training. We traveled north from Virginia fighting off monsters for about two weeks before Grover found us."

"I was only supposed to save Thalia, you see? I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would jeopardize the mission. We knew Hades was after her but I couldn't just leave Annabeth and Luke to fend off a horde of monsters by themselves! I… I thought I could lead all of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze, got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. If I had just been a little quicker…"

"Stop it," Annabeth said. "No one blames you. Thalia didn't blame you either."

"She sacrificed herself to save us," Grover said miserably. "Her death was my fault. The Council of Elders said so."

"Because you wouldn't leave two other demi-gods behind?" I said. "That's not fair!"

"Percy's right Grover! I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you neither would Luke. We don't care what the Council says!"

Grover kept sniffling in the dark. "It's just my luck, I am the lamest satyr ever, and I find the two most powerful half-bloods of the century, Thalia and Percy."

"Your not lame," Annabeth insisted. "You've got more courage then any satyr I know! Name one other who would dare go to the Underworld! I bet Percy is really glad to have you here right now!"

She kicked me in the shin.

"Yeah," I said which I would have done with out the kick. "It's not luck you found Thalia and me, Grover. You have the biggest heart of any satyr, and you're a natural searcher. That is why _you're_ going to be the one to find Pan."

I heard a deep, satisfied sigh. I waited for Grover to say something but his breathing only got heavier. When the sound turned to snoring, I realized he had fallen asleep.

"How does he do that?" I marveled.

"I don't know," Annabeth whispered into my right pectoral her breath warm on my skin. "But that was a really nice thing you said to him."

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We rode in silence for about an hour, bumping along on the feed sacks. The zebra munched on a turnip, the lion licked the last of the hamburger meat of his food tray and looked at me hopefully.

Annabeth had started to rub the beads on her necklace like she did when thinking deed strategic thoughts.

I looked at the necklace. It was a simple leather cord with nine beads on it and a large gold ring with a Mason Symbol of the drawing compass with the g in the middle and an open book under it. I said "So is the bead with the pine tree on it from you first year?"

She looked, she hadn't even realized what she was doing.

"Yeah, every August the camp councilors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's bead. I've got Thalia's tree, a silver owl that was the summer I was claimed, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress now that was a weird summer, I have a selkie that was another weird summer, a pink pegasii that was the one when Clarisse was orange for a month, a purple bow and arrow that was the summer Eros visited, and then there's the Olympic torch we held our own Olympics that year, a sun and moon symbol that was the year Artemis and Apollo visited together talk about sibling rivalry, and this…"

She had gotten to the ring and a sour look crossed her face. "Your father's college ring?"

"That's-" She stopped. "Yeah, yeah it is."

"You don't have to tell me."

"No… it's okay." She took a shaky breath. "My dad sent it to me about four years ago in a folded letter. The ring was his main keepsake from Athena she made it for him when he passed his doctorate level exams. He said he loved me, and missed me and wanted to apologize for being a jerk."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"No it doesn't I moved back home and tried to make it work but my step mom and her brats were just as bad as ever. She wanted me gone didn't want my freakishness screwing up her darling angels. Then the monsters attacked I held our house from siege for two days before Chiron and reinforcements arrived I left the next day."

"You think you'll ever try again?"

"Please, I am not into self inflicting pain." She didn't meet my eyes.

"You should try again, you can't make a family with out heartache and labor, you can't just sit there and expect it to work like a stone, you've got to work it like bread dough. You have to need it and constantly remake it, always new."

"Thanks for that heartfelt advice." She said coldly. "But my father made his choice about who he wants to live with." She still refused to look me in the eye.

Took her chin in my hand and said "Annabeth look at me."

She refused so I tilted her head till she was facing me and said "Annabeth?"

"What?" She had closed her eyes so that she couldn't see me.

"Look at me." She opened her eyes to reveal that they were bloodshot and watery and a tear ran down her cheek. She looked so sad and forlorn and I couldn't be upset with her so I held her close and when the next tear rolled down her face I kissed it off.

"This isn't fair," Annabeth sighed. "Before you came along I didn't ever cry and now I can't stop crying."

"Well before you I used to never budge once I made up my mind but now all you have to do is pout and I crumble like soggy cake."

She giggled and it sounded like water chuckling over pebbles or stones in a brook. She propped her chin up in my chest and said "For someone with trust issues you are awfully trusting."

"Well if you ever hurt me you'll see just how trusting I am."

We passed about twenty minutes in silence when I said "So if the gods fight will things line up like they did in the Trojan War. Athena vs. Poseidon?"

"I don't know about my mom all I know is that I will fight with you."

"Why? Why go against you mom? I mean shouldn't family count for everything?"

"Well Percy if you go that route Athena is Poseidon's niece which would make you and me second cousins but for the fact that gods don't have DNA. So technically I am siding with family. Besides you're my best friend Seaweed Brain!"

"Oh, well thank you Annabeth." I hugged her tightly.

"Your welcome Percy. Now any more stupid questions?" She hugged me back.

I couldn't think of anything to say but thankfully I didn't have to she was asleep.

I had trouble following her example but after I started to concentrate on her heartbeat and breathing I was able to ignore Grover's snores and the lion's hungry stare. After listening to Annabeth's breathing for about ten minutes I fell asleep.

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My nightmare started out familiar, I was in a straight jacket and had to take a test by filling in the answers with a pencil in my mouth.

Then the dream strayed from the usual.

Next to me was a girl. She was about my height six foot even and she was gorgeous in an emo-goth sort of way. She had a sixteen inch waist and a flat toned stomach, with a skull naval ring. She was wearing a ripped up tank top that was five sizes to small and showed off the breasts which were about a D cup. Around her tiny waist was a belt with a dagger sheath in it. She wore a black leather duster and a black leather cowboy with one side pinned up like Indiana Jones, which sat atop a head of long midnight black hair. On her wrists were bronze armbands like what a slave or Punk Rocker would wear except they glowed like only celestial bronze can. Her eyes looked like electrical blue energy formed into a ring for her iris and she had pale white skin that looked like it hadn't seen the sun in ages.

She was struggling against some hand cuffs that chained her to the desk. She looked at me and said _'Well Seaweed Brain? One of us has to get out of here!'_

'_She's right'_ my dream-self thought. _'I'm going back to that cavern and I'm going to give Hades a piece of my mind.'_ The straight jacket melted off me and I fell through the classroom floor. The teacher's voice changed until it was high and cold, echoing off the cavern walls. The very sound of the voice oozed evil.

'_Percy Jackson,'_ it said _'Yes, the exchange went well, I see.'_

I was back in the dark cavern spirits of the dead drifting around me. Unseen in the pit, the creature was speaking, but not to me. The numbing power of it's voice was directed to another.

'_And he suspects nothing?'_ it asked.

Another voice one I knew I knew but just couldn't place said from over my shoulder _'Nothing my Lord. He is as ignorant as the rest.'_

I looked but no one was there, the speaker was invisible.

'_Deception upon deception,'_ the pit voice mused aloud. _'Excellent'_

'_Truly my Lord,'_ said the voice next to me. _'you are well named the Crooked One. But was it really necessary? I could have brought what I stole directly-'_

'_You?'_ the thing scorned._ 'You have already shown your limits. You would have failed me completely had I not intervened!'_

'_But my Lord!-'_

'_Peace, my young apprentice. Our six months have bought us much. Zeus's anger has grown. Poseidon has played his most desperate card. And we shall use it against him, when both items are delivered into my hands… but wait! He's here!'_

'_What? Did you summon him my Lord?'_ the invisible person asked.

'_No.'_ The full force of the beings attention was focused on me freezing me in place. _'Blast his father's blood!'_ it yelled angrily _'He is too changeable! To unpredictable! The boy brought himself hither!'_ it howled.

'_Impossible!'_

'_For a weakling such as your self perhaps!'_ it snarled. Then its cold power turned back to me._ So… you wish to dream of your quest, youngling? Then I will oblige!'_

The scene changed, I was in a vast throne room with black marble walls and bronze floors. A horrid throne made of fused human bones stood on a dais next to it a throne made from a bronze lily. Both were empty but in front of it was a golden shimmer of light and my mother. She looked frail and weak. I tried to move towards her but I was glued to the floor. I looked at my hands and realized the flesh of my body was withering to dust and grinning skeletons came and draped me in black silk ropes and put a crown of laurels dipped in chimera poison on my head burning into my scalp. The voice laughed malevolently and said _'All hail the conquering hero!'_

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I woke with a start, the sound of the doors opening to the trailer woke me and I tried to hide me and Annabeth before we were found when Grover said 'What's going on?"

A man with a bushy mustache poked his head in and said "What was thaaa-"

Suddenly the man froze and didn't move or speak, or breathe for that matter.

As me and Grover looked at each other Annabeth started to gather our stuff, just as we were about to finish packing a woman with a long brown hair great figure and wearing the clothes to show it off said "Hey you three get a move on we haven't got all day!"

Me and Annabeth were suddenly on the defense and with a swirl of mist I had teleported behind her and with Anaklusmos to her throat said "Who are you and what do you want?"

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Piper was real still as she realized that these kids were not going to trust her easily. With a wave of her hands she froze them or at least thought she had. As she moved away the boy with the light saber whom she recognized as Percy started to jerk as he tried to throw off her power.

Phoebe rushed over and said "What is going on Piper?"

"Well I don't know he is the one with the sword!"

Paige and Leo orbed in and then around that time the freeze wore off. Percy charged at them and then made a swipe at Leo. The weapon passed right though him but then he shattered in to a million sparks of blue white light. Percy stared at the spot when Leo reformed and looked around a little confused. Annabeth got in to a defensive form to better fight and Grover suddenly shouted "SssssTttOooooP!"

Percy blinked rapidly several times and then turned to Grover and said "Why? they froze two mortals how were we supposed to know they weren't enemies!"

Grover snorted and said "Remember how we talked about the fact that mortals don't worship the gods and goddesses?"

"Yes."

"Well these are followers of the Green Way. They are some of the few mortals that descend from the heroes of ancient Greece. As there family lines grew older they started to lose their powers so they all to gather summoned Hecate to give each and every person alive that descended from those heroes powers that would be passed down through blood from generation to generation. They became known as wiccians or witches and so the gods set up the elders people from the mortal world who would become the first guardian angels or White Lighters they then became elders as more White Lighters came into existence to protect all of the witches from the demons or evil magic users that follow the Source of all evil and ultimately Chronos. They are the most powerful witches of the age the Charmed Ones."

Piper could tell that Percy was still not sold on the whole idea so she turned to her sisters and said "Reveal the truth to reluctant eyes, let our thoughts pass through the skies, so that we might understand each other, descendant of my great grandmothers brother."

With a feeling like being trapped in a whirlwind of thought images, smells, and sounds came rushing into Percy's mind he saw the night when two of the women before him and another gained their powers the three years during which they fought countless demons and then the one he didn't know died then the other girl that was there showed up she gained her powers and then a guy that was evil tried to turn good and then one of girls married him and then they killed him and then they moved on he came back they killed him again. Then he watched as he became good permanently then a baby and then the boy was killed and another man besides the one there and the former demon was there and then he understood.

Percy stood there for an hour and then Annabeth started to get nervous. Just as she got ready to do something the white lighter said "Don't worry it won't take much longer. You are the daughter of Athena right. Wonderful woman I'm more of a Hermes follower myself what with being a doctor when I was alive and all." And so Leo got Annabeth to talking about everything under the sun explaining how the sisters were now each part White Lighter and how she and Grover and Percy were their joint charges. And how the Elders were not just the governors of good magic in the mortal world half bloods excluded but where the Olympian version of the FBI, CIA, NCIS, and the HLS all in one.

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Percy finally started to stir when a man about six eight appeared. At first Percy saw a pale washed out version like the souls of the dead from his dreams but it started to darken and solidify into an actual man. He had a light tan and had slicked back black hair that was graying at the temples. His black eyes were cool and collected but behind that was a worry that was felt from the heart. He smiled at the woman who he had learned to be Phoebe and then he turned to the three of the girls and said "Incoming demons. I say about five minutes before they catch my scent and close in. Are they the…?"

"Yes they are." Said Paige while turning him to face them fully she said "Percy, Annabeth, Grover, meet Jonathan Coleridge Turner the second. Former demon, Source, Avatar, and brother-in-law. And doesn't he look good for a one hundred and twenty-five year old!"

Annabeth snickered and then she bowed and said "Pleased to meet you Mr. Turner I hope we're not causing too much trouble?"

Cole had become distracted by the cleavage that was shown by the out fit that she wore and said in a rather dazed sort of way and with a wave of his hand "No, uh, no, no trouble at all."

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After the explanations had been giving introduction done and all that good stuff they started to head away but before they left Grover did the blessing of the wild But just as a he was ready to end it he asked the Charmed Ones to add their blessings Phoebe turned to Percy and said "Why don't you help us write the spell?"

After some whispered conversations the sisters and Percy recited _"Spirits of land, air, and sea, converge on these creatures newly freed, guide them safely to a place to call home be it in the air in the sea or a place upon the loam."_

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The Heroes continued on their quest whilst the Charmed Ones vanquished the demons that eventually followed them to the manor.

Myself, Grover, and Annabeth had eventually stopped running around the city and had come to stop at the Lotus Casino and Hotel. When the three of us entered into the Casino we collectively said "Whoa!"

While we stared in shock at the white marble building that looked like one of the gods summer homes we were approached by an attendant that said "Welcome to the Lotus Hotel and Casino Masters and Madame your stay and expenses have been paid in full and these are your Lotus Cash Cards and your room key.

The Tired Trio headed towards the elevators and upon reaching the fortieth floor found room one and Grover and Annabeth and I crashed on the recliner, the couch, and Percy respectively and fell into a deep sleep. We got up the next morning and felt completely refreshed and then we ate from the room service menu.

After getting ready to face the day Grover decided we should have some fun before we left. As Grover played a game that let the animal hunt the hunter and Annabeth played in the game room I noticed that some of the guests looked a little strange. There was a cowboy that looked like he had stepped straight out of the old west and there was a Victorian dressed lady, and another that looked like he was an Elvis impersonator. Elvis and I got to playing Sharpshooters and when we finished he said "Groove Man the games get better and better and I've only been here two weeks!"

I looked at him oddly and decided to test him. We kept playing and I would use modern slang and he would look puzzled and then go back to playing his game. As it continued I realized with dawning horror that he wasn't a kid that loved the sixties he was actually _from_ the sixties.

As I realized this I started to run and found Annabeth playing a Sim game that projected three dimensional versions of the building she constructed after trying to get her attention I finally got feed up and yelled in her ear "Annabeth Spider!"

I felt bad when she screamed and then she looked at me and said "What?"

"Something's not right. We have been hear two days and I guy I talked to was here two months but the thing is Annabeth he's from the sixties he should be forty years old and he's not he's only fourteen!"

We eventually found Grover he had still been playing Virtual Deer Hunter and had strayed to the second floor hunting humans as it was. After thirty more minutes in the casino we finally extricated him from the game and he came fairly willingly after that.

As we packed our stuff we were approached by a bell hop and he said "Is there any thing I can do to make your stay more comfortable?"

"Annabeth turned on the charm and flirted with out shame saying sweetly "No we were just checking out."

"Such a shame." He murmured and the thing is I think he actually meant it.

We left and hailed a cab and after paying with our lotus card that had no limit we were on our way to L.A. after we had gone for an hour we asked the date and after hearing it I started to panic just slightly. We had thirteen days left to get the bolt and get back to New York.

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We drove for two and a half hours making record time and that was because the cabbie never dropped below ninety-five miles an hour after we told him he could set the tip.

When we got to the outskirts of L.A. and Annabeth told the cabbie to let us out at Santa Monica pier. We arrived an hour later, paying the cabbie and then we turned to the ocean.

It was late so we stopped at a nearby resort and paid for a suite for the rest of our stay in L.A.

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That night I had the dream again but this time…

"_So you finally made it back, eh? Well I hope you don't take for ever I for one am ready to come back from being I pine tree."_

_I stared at the babe before me and then said "Thalia?"_

"_In the flesh…so to speak." She looked a tad unnerved about her pun and then said "You must act quickly and when you see Uncle Hades address him as uncle and give him the ultimatum to return the stolen items on the solstice. I can tell you no more Cousin."_

With those parting words I left the realms of Morpheus and then I proceeded to wake Annabeth who looked severely ticked.

She looked at me with a murderous glare and said "Do you know what time it is? Hum? Do you! It is four in the morning and you have just woken me up and you had best have a _very_ good reason or so help me I will kill you myself and save Grandfather the trouble!"

"I had a dream about the quest." I told her as much as I could remember and then said "The servant sounded familiar but I can't quite place it. He called the monster something other than my lord… some special title."

"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested "Or perhaps The Rich One? They are both common names for Hades."

"No that's not it," I said. "It was something like the bent one or the like." I frowned the name was right at the tip of my tongue, and so naturally it didn't come to me.

She shifted and because she was nude her breast was exposed and her hard nipple stood in relief as she lay there and looked at me with worry I moved behind her and started to give her a back rub.

I could tell she was still worried and slowly rubbed and worked the muscles in her lower back moving up as I completed the section as I reached mid back at the shoulder blade region I would rub at her sides and at the base of her breasts. I worked up to her neck then across her shoulders and down each arm. By this time she was laying on her back and I moved to her feet. Slowly I worked her feet easing the tension out by using water bending to move between her toes and over the skin swirling and scrubbing leaving her skin moisturized and squeaky clean. As I moved up and over her calves to her thighs which were thick with muscle, to her hips and swirling the water to lift her off the mattress cleaned each globe of her adorable posterior. Then I cleaned and massaged the more personal parts of her anatomy cleaning and rubbing her core and all around it. As I cleaned she had giggled but when I reached her puss she arched her back at the sudden rush of sensory information.

I swirled the water and massaged, pressed, and moving the water like a hand and doing a watery palm squeeze making her groan as her sexual tension released. I moved up to her abdomen and slowly cleaned and massaged over her back and stomach swirling in her naval and making the ruby piercing glisten and shine. I moved up and massaged her hands and arms again following the water technique I started on her legs and then I got to her shoulders and moved to her chest massaging them and simulating bites nips and sucking actions and kisses lightly caressing the flesh. Annabeth moaned and squirmed as I relieved her of stress though one would imagine that I had more stress then anything. As I moved up her neck mimicking kisses and licks along with the ever present swirling I moved to the base of her skull to the jaw and smoothed pressed scratched and rubbed her scalp leaving her hair and scalp bed perfectly clean.

As I finished with the impromptu massage I leaned over and kissed her cheek. However as I made to pull away she hugged me and whimpered when her nipples grazed my chest she said in an almost frightened voice "Percy please…I need to finish…please help me! Please finish me…please!" She looked forlorn and embarrassed that she was asking for my help of all people to help her have her release. I moved my hands and the water coalesced around Annabeth's core and breast and started to follow the action that I had it at earlier. As she moaned and whimpered in turn I stared to reach an aroused state but managed to force it away with thoughts of Ms. Dodds. Finally she bucked and moaned as her orgasm crashed into her full force.

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After she calmed down and relaxed she gave me a beatific smile and then looked worried and said "You are sure that the names I mentioned aren't it?"

"Yes."

"Well at any rate the throne room sounds right."

"Ok but I don't think the voice was Hades it didn't really sound like a gods voice if you know what I mean."

She blanched and then started whispering to herself "It can't be… no… It has to be Hades!"

I let the conversation drop and we both drifted off to sleep.

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The next morning we woke bright and early and walked to Santa Monica pier and as we walked I saw a sign the said _TO THE SKELETON REEF LIGHT._ I nudged Annabeth and pointed. Grover looked pale when we pointed it out but he followed us none the less.

When we passed the sign we followed along narrow and rickety stairs that lead to the ocean surface. After we reached the bottom there was a small dingy and we climbed in and it took off.

For an hour we road the boat until it stopped at the dock of this old Lighthouse. It was a beautiful lighthouse made of brick and stone and was fifty feet high. The base was twenty by twenty and had pillars evenly spaced lining the front. The first segment went up and encompassed two stories. A walkway along the top was guarded by battlements and the next segment which was made of pillars around all four sides continued up one story where the stone structure started again. It continued up two stories and there was a flat roof. An arch that was oriented north to south rose up and an arch that was east to west rose up but where they would have met was a giant glass sphere with light held inside.

We followed the walkway and entered the lighthouse. No one was inside so we followed another trail to the water line along the stone and then a sea sprite appeared. She gestured for me to follow so I nodded to Annabeth and Grover and dove in.

I followed her down until we reached the continental shelf where the ocean suddenly drops to the deep sea. She nodded to me and left. I started to fidget after ten minutes passed when a Nereid slowly materialized out of the water and said _"Hello Percy Jackson we have been waiting."_ She had long black hair and her dress was made of green silk. Her eyes were hauntingly beautiful and so I did not notice the giant seahorse she was riding.

"_I am sorry My Lady we were detained at a time warped hotel."_

"_All is well besides you have come a long way. Your father is proud of you and wished he could come but as the Sea King he could hardly get away from that irritating little nephew of mine Triton."_

"_So you are a Nereid?"_

"_Yes, child I am. One of fifty thousand your stepmother being one of them. We have been watching you for a long time for it is not often a son of the Sea God is born."_

I suddenly remember faces in the waves at Montauk. I was drawn back to the present as the Nereid said _"… your Father had another reason not to be here. The Lord of the Sea stands at the brink of an unwanted war and had much to occupy his time. Besides the Laws forbid him from helping directly, the Gods cannot show such favoritism."_

"_Not even to their own children?"_

"_Especially their own children. They may work by indirect influence only. That is why I come bearing a warning and gifts. One for you from your father, one for Annabeth from Tythes, and one from Oceanus for Grover."_

"_I know you journey to the realms of Hades, few indeed can claim to have entered and returned. Orpheus could make beautiful music, Hercules had great strength, and Houdini could escape Tartarus itself. Have you any of these powers?"_

I looked at my feet and shook my head slightly ashamed at the fact.

"_I see, you have greater strength then you know and powers you have not even begun to realize. The Fates have proclaimed a terrible fate for you should you survive to majority. Poseidon would not have you die before your time so take these gifts young Istari."_

As I got ready to ascend I asked _"What is the warning?"_

"_Follow your heart. Hades will try and manipulate you if he can, for he feeds on doubt and hopelessness. He will trick you if he can and make you mistrust your own judgment as well as the judgment of others. Don't give him that chance. For once you are in his realm he will never let you leave willingly."_

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I floated back up to the surface and teleported to the Lighthouse were I found Annabeth and Grover were stretched out on the beach getting a tan. Smirking I raised my hand and a wave crashed on them making Grover start coughing and Annabeth squeal in shock. I held out the gifts and told them the story. Annabeth had received a full set of armor that was similar to my own except it looked like the night time sky and Grover received a dagger that was made of steel forged in an ocean heat vent by a Cyclops. I had gotten a staff. It was around seven feet long and made of Harmona, Hawthorne, Holly, and what looked like vines.

The main wood was a hybrid of the Harmona, Hawthorne, and Holly tree and fixed around it was a complex weaving of vines that intertwined and looked wonderful with the leaves and at the top held in place by four tines that curved around it was a six inch diameter emerald with small pearls set around the base of the setting. Atlantean runes were carved up and down the staff and it hummed with power.

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We got ready to leave the island when we saw a small bottle floating next to the boat and just as Grover went to grab it I grabbed his and Annabeth's arms and teleported us out to sea.

Just as Annabeth got ready to choke me for nearly drowning them in sea water the bottle exploded taking the boat with it. I turned towards shore and teleported us towards it and we landed on the boat platform. I dried us off and we headed back into L.A. proper traveling to the west side of the city.

We had to avoid cabs after the first cabbie dropped us off at Disney recording studio. Just as we walked away he exclaimed and recognized me as the boy from the wanted commercials on TV.

We had to stick to the alleys after that to avoid cop cars. We got to the seedy part of town and had stopped in font of an appliance store. I watched a report on the news saying…

"We have here with us the stepfather of Percy Hallowell-Jackson, Gabriel Ugliano to discuss his stepson…"

The camera paned out to show Gabe in his penthouse playing poker with a bombshell blonde practically sitting in his lap. "Honestly Ms. Walters if it weren't for my grief counselor here I would be a wreck. My stepson took everything I cared for, my wife, my car, my son. The boy that's running around can not be my son he was raised better."

Once again a screen shift happened and It showed a picture of me with Annabeth and Grover talking to Ares. "…This troubled young man, a fugitive from the law, was last seen in Denver Colorado. Who are the other children? Why is the man with them? Is Percy Jackson a delinquent, a fugitive, or a brainwashed member of a new cult. The world may never know."

Grover dragged me away before I could destroy the little store.

It got dark and some dark looking folks started coming out. Now coming from New York I don't scare easy but most of that was because if you knew what you were doing you couldn't get lost. L.A. seemed to be confusing because it could be. It was big and loud and chaotic like Ares and seemed to be that way just to prove it was big and for no other purpose than to tick people off.

After passing gang bangers, street hawkers, and other idiots we were surrounded by some mean looking kids that were dressed expensive and were just rich kids playing at being bad. I grew up as a gigolo with a dad who was in the mafia. These kids were a piece of cake.

I made the mistake of taking my staff in both hands and holding it out in front of me. Everyone backed off except the leader who was really stupid and walked towards me with a switchblade. I bashed him in the head spun hit the opposite one in the groin and the other were each coming at me at once. I slammed the staff into the side of one while the end jabbed someone's gut. I twirled it over my head and got the other two in the face.

We ran for a few blocks and ducked into a furnisher store Crusty's Water Bed Palace. We were stopped by a man that had to be seven feet tall and was Asian and bald. He looked rather reptilian with a cold smile and heavy lidded eyes and a grey tint to his olive skin.

He looked like he had stepped out of the Lotus Casino he wore a silk paisley shirt that was open to his crotch the tails tucked into bell bottoms. His jacket had landing strips for lapels and he had tons of silver chains around his neck.

He smiled a coffee stained smile and said "Hello I am Crusty."

"Sorry to barge in…" Began Annabeth but she was interrupted by Crusty who said "Hiding from those kids? Well we get a lot of people in here because of them. Say you want to look at some water beds."

I was about to say no when he put his hands on mine and Annabeth's shoulders and steered us into the showroom.

There was every kind of water bed imaginable. There were children's, twins, doubles, queens, kings, emperor of the universe and all other manner of sizes between.

He lead us to a bed covered in red satin sheets and had built in disco balls for the headboard. The mattress was vibrating and looked like boiling blood.

"Million hand massage, works like a charm I'll tell you. Well go ahead try it out, Hell take a nap for all I care, there is much business to day."

Me and Annabeth looked at each other. Grover said "Million hand massage." He jumped into the middle of the bed and said "Oh guys this is awesome."

Crusty stood there and stoked his leathery chin and said "Almost, almost thought for sure I would have had him that time."

"Almost had him for what?" I asked

"Do me a favor doll and try this one. It might fit honey."

Annabeth sputtered and said "But I…"

He patted her reassuringly on the shoulder and lead her to the Scholars Delight model. It was a queen sized bed with a headboard that had built in shelves on the left and right side where the bedside table would be the main portion had a three part mirror with two tiffany lamps at the one third marks on the headboard. The shelves were carved with vines and little squirrels the mattress had silver sheets with dark brown boarders and a forest green comforter the posts at each corner held curtains of a dark brown to match the boarder and when Annabeth didn't want to lie down Crusty pushed her and when she made to get back up he snapped his fingers and said _"Ergo!"_

Ropes sprang from the sides and lashed her to the bed. Grover was bound to his bed as well he yelled "N-no-ooo-oot c-c-co-oo-ol!"

He turned to me and said "Almost! Damn! Thought I had her for sure! Oh well."

I stepped away and his hand shot out and grabbed me he said "We will find you one in a minute we have to make these ones fit. _Ergo!_ Now you were saying?"

Ropes had sprung from the top and bottom and were wrapping around their ankles and armpits and pulling them from both ends.

"Don't worry these are stretching jobs, they'll gain a few inches in height provided they don't come apart."

My mind raced as I tried to figure out what to do. I couldn't use my sword he would snap my neck before I could get it drawn.

I said "Your real name wouldn't happen to be Procrustes would it?"

"The Stretcher at your service! But no one can say that Crusty is better for the firm."

"Oh absolutely! And the workman ship on these beds fabulous. Did you do it all yourself?"

"Yes and it is about time someone noticed! I tell my customers that every time. No one ever bothers to look at the workmanship. How many lava lamp headboard have you seen?"

"Not many."

"That's right!"

"Percy! Would you…!" Annabeth would have continued but about that time her back popped and million hand massage came on making her moan.

"Don't mind her she has been needing her back popped for a while."

"All of my customers are they're never at the foot or half foot mark."

"What do you do if they are to long?"

"Well if they are short like your friends I stretch them to fit. If they are long I cut off the extra."

I nodded sagaciously "That sounds more than generous." He had reached behind the counter and brought out a double bladed ax.

"I am glad you see it my way."

The ropes were really stretching my friends now Annabeth was flushed and looked stained while Grover just gurgled.

We had stopped in front of a circular bed with purple bed covers and I looked at the sales tag. I looked at Crusty and said in a disbelieving voice "Crusty does this one really have stabilizers to stop wave motion?"

"You bet your sweet biffy! Try it out!"

"Even on a big guy like you? No waves at all?"

"Guaranteed."

"Really!"

"Yep."

"No way!"

"Way."

"Show me!"

"Sure." He sat down on the mattress eagerly showing me the bed and said "See no waves."

I snapped my fingers and said _"Ergo!"_

Ropes lashed out and tied him down on the bead it was six feet in diameter and so his head and feet hung off the edges.

He yelled "Hey" over my voice saying "Center him just right."

He was tugged around the mattress and he finally stopped. I lifted the ax and he said "NO wait-…"

He disintegrated into dust. I cut the ropes on the other beds and said "Hey Grover you look taller."

He gave me a dirty look. While he walked to the door me and Annabeth went to the back and got the map of L.A. Crusty's supply of drachmas and I filled out delivery slips to deliver his inventory of beds to camp. As we walked towards the door I pulled Annabeth close and said "So was the million hand massage as good as mine?"

She blushed.

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As we left I started to run. Grover was not in a hurry though and said "Hey slow down and give us a minute we were almost stretched to death!"

"So. That means you are ready for the Underworld, it's a block away."

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We found DOA RECORDING STUDIOS. Underneath the sign stenciled into the glass were the words. NO LOITERING, NO SOLICITERS, NO LIVING.

It was almost midnight and the lobby was full of people and there was a security guard sitting at a platform that looked like a judges stand. I turned to my friends and said "Don't forget the plan."

"Of course the plan. I love the plan." Grover said in a hushed voice.

Annabeth looked worried and I collected her in my arms and said "It's alright Annabeth we will be fine you've got to think positive."

"Yes think positive. I am about to enter the realm of my great uncle and I should think positive."

She looked at me and said "You're right I should. Your right the plan will work." She nudged Grover who jumped and said "Yes we came this far may as well finish it. We will get the bolt, and save your mom. No worries."

I smiled at them and said "Thanks guys." Only minutes ago I had almost let them get stretched in two and here they were trying to make me feel better. I truly was a lucky man. "Lets me and my Uncle have a chat shall we?"

Soft Muzak played from hidden speakers. And cholla cactus grew in the corner of the lobby looking like skeletons. The furniture was done in black leather and chrome so as to give a modern feel to the room. No one moved or talked although there was some that were crying. I walked up to the desk, it was on a raised platform so we had to look up at him.

He was tall and elegant with milk chocolate skin and bleach white hair. He wore tortoiseshell glasses and a white Italian silk suit. He looked up and said "Can I help you?"

"Yes." I placed a stack of drachma on the desk and said "We need into the underworld pronto."

"And why would you want to do that?"

"Because we are dead."

"No your not." He had an accent like he was British but also like English wasn't his first language. "Should have known you are godlings. Leave while you can and I will take these."

He reached for the drachmas and I fired some ice lightning at his hand. It connected and his hand froze and then he rubbed it thawing it out. I leaned in close and said "My mother is dead, I was sent on a quest, I am in the lobby of the Underworld and I am going with you help or without it. ARE WE CLEAR?"

He looked at me and I said a little louder and using my aura let loose a cold so deep it made even the dead shiver "ARE WE CLEAR? Besides your suit looks like it has seen better days."

"Fine lets go." He scooped up the drachmas and we followed into an elevator. He flipped up a glass case cover and pushed a button with a skull on it. And we started going down.

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We had been going down for what seemed like hours when I noticed that we had lurched forward. I looked around and noticed that the elevator had become a boat. As I watched Charon I noticed that his skin was transparent and his skeleton was all that was visible his black robes shrouding him in shadow. And his eyes were like Ares except Charon's were full of night and death and despair.

We were on a river that was oily and had floating bones, dead fish, and other more bizarre things like baby dolls, crushed carnations, graduation announcements with gilt edges.

"The hopes and dreams of humanity have polluted the river over the course of time." Supplied Charon, he had just brought up his pole to propel us forward when I motioned for him to stop. He did but out of curiosity more than anything because no one had ever stopped the boat before.

I dug around in all my pockets and finally found what I was looking for. A handful of the sand dollars that Oceanus had given me. I grasped them and then called out "Guardian of the River Styx I the son of Poseidon have a gift for you come forth and claim it!"

The river bubbled and boiled and a woman with long greasy hair and a tattered two shouldered toga said "You summoned me mortal? In three thousand years no mortal has ever summoned me."

I held out my handful of sand dollars and said "I offer you a way to be clean once more."

She reached forward her eyes disbelieving and took them. With one pinched between her forefingers and thumbs and with a crack and a rush of salty air she was cleaned, Her hair long and shiny, toga and robes restored. She took the rest and shattered them scattering them throughout the river and with a boiling roil the waters were cleaned pitch black and with a frosty mist floating above it. Charon stared in amazement no one had ever considered cleaning the Styx.

The boat docked and they disembarked. They had decided after seeing the traffic to follow the express lane and pass under Cerberus.

We were luck that he was distracted by some one with a magical object and we skirted on passed while the alarms were going off so that we wouldn't set them off again.

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Or so we thought apparently Cerberus can smell the living and he chased after us. We ran. We ran as far as we could as fast as we could but to no avail. He caught up with us and when I thought we were doggy chow Annabeth threw us for a loop. She reached into the pack she had gotten at the water park and pulled out a big red ball she concentrated on it and said _"Maximus!"_ The ball grew until it was twice the size of a large beach ball and then she said "Hey there boy! Whose a good dog! Whose a good dog! You! Are you a good dog!" She threw the ball and his left head caught it. Did I mention that Cerberus had three heads?

Annabeth then said "Drop it!" The dog looked at her the ball caught between the right and left head. "Drop the ball." He dropped it and she said "Good boy! Good boy! Yes you're a very good boy!" She told us to leave and when we tried to argue she clocked me in the head with the slobbery ball. We started to leave and when he made to follow she said "Stay! If you want the ball you have to stay!" He stayed and she got all girly on him and said "Yes you are a good boy! Yes you are! Yes you are!"

She threw the ball and then she started to follow us. We were about to bolt when the Cerberus moaned from all three mouths and started to follow us. She looked at it and it cocked all three heads. She said "I'll bring you another ball later would you like that?" It whimpered and I didn't need to speak dog to know that it would stay right there and wait for her. She looked at it sadly and said "Good dog. I'll visit soon I promise."

We left to it howling at our retreating forms and Annabeth started to cry a single tear making it's way down her cheek.

**Review so that I know what you think and give me ideas I want to deviate from the strict plotline I've been following but I need some good ideas people. Flames will be used to burn offerings to Hades. I apologize if the Charmed Ones and company are out of character it has been ages since I watched the show.**


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